Study on Performance of Floating Column with Different Configurations

Abstract

Floating column is a type of columns which distributes the load to beams rather than foundation. This is common in multi storey buildings which are anticipated to accommodate parking at ground floor or open halls at higher floors. These columns have discontinuities in the load path when a column coming from top of the building is discontinued at a lower level, usually at the ground storey. The structure with floating column should be designed for earthquake loads so these buildings will be in seismic prone areas. In this study, the effect of various lateral stability techniques to the building with floating columns on various structural response quantities of the building using response spectrum analysis is studied. The main objective here is to study the seismic response of building with floating columns with various lateral stability techniques and to find out the most appropriate configuration for providing floating columns. Various parameters such as story displacement, storey drift, story shear, story stiffness of a building is studied with respect to different configurations of floating columns.