Pyramid Shaped Structures Response to Seismic Excitation

Abstract

Development in technology has led to the construction of remarkable buildings taller and wider, still the Pyramids are structural wonders constructed thousands of years ago, standing stable, challenging the modern day construction. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the configuration of the pyramid which makes it stable. It was observed that the pyramids were designed with angle of slant walls as 520 and the golden ratio (slant height by base ratio) equal to 1.618. Based on this configuration study a pyramid shaped model was designed in SAP2000 and its seismic performance studied. Five earthquake data namely, Kobe, Northridge, Chi-Chi Taiwan, Cape Mendocino and san Fernando was used to study the seismic behaviour of the pyramid structure. Time history analysis was done and the response of the structure was taken. To compare the behaviour of the pyramid structure, an ordinary framed structure and a truncated pyramid with slant angle 580 with same base dimensions and height was designed and time history analysis done on the two models using the same earthquake data. The response was observed. It was seen that the pyramid shaped structures performance was better than the other two models.