Torsion In Buildings Research Articles

Quantitative assessment of seismic design provisions for buildings with torsional irregularities

ASCE/SEI 7 design requirements for seismic-induced torsion in buildings are evaluated to determine their effectiveness for resisting seismic-induced collapse of torsionally irregular buildings. The ASCE/SEI 7-16 provisions are found to be generally conservative for most torsionally irregular building configurations—exceptions are some buildings that rely heavily on lines of lateral resistance orthogonal to the design earthquake force to resist torsional moments, and also some torsionally flexible buildings designed using modal response spectrum analysis. Modifications to provide better consistency in collapse resistance over a large range of building configurations and degrees of torsional irregularity are recommended. The study also demonstrates that buildings classified as extremely torsionally irregular may not need to be prohibited from Seismic Design Categories E and F, as long as the lateral system is proportioned properly.

New Proposal to Incorporate Seismic Accidental Torsion in the Design of Buildings

This work studies a new design procedure to account for accidental torsion in buildings subjected to seismic ground motions. The procedure does not require a design accidental eccentricity and it is based on a simple amplification of design parameters obtained from the corresponding model without accidental torsion. The objectives of the study are to present and to evaluate the torsion design proposed procedure. Based on representative low-rise, reinforced-concrete building models subjected to a bidirectional earthquake ground motion, several scenarios of accidental torsion were simulated using the Monte Carlo method. In the first part of the study, elastic analyses of simulated models were carried out to obtain the amplification factor value (Fat). In the second part, nonlinear analyses were performed to evaluate the design proposal based on ductility demands. Main conclusions of the study are: mean values of ductility demands do not significantly change between the torsionally balanced (TB) system and the corresponding one with accidental torsion (TU with Fat = 1.0). However, these mean values decreased about 18% for beams and 16% for columns when the torsion amplification factor (Fat = 1.2) was used in the TU systems. As for peak ductility demands, the unbalance due to accidental torsion leads to increments close to 42% for beams and 54% for columns. On the other hand, the torsion amplification factor Fat = 1.2 reduces the peak values in 25%, approximately, for beams and columns of systems with accidental torsion. Main limitations of the study are: it is based on one bidirectional ground motion (with several incidence angles) and eight structural models.

Perde-Çerçeve Sistemlerde Rijitlik ve Kayma Merkezi

Binalarda burulma olması durumunda yapıya ilave deprem kuvvetleri etkimekte ve iç kuvvetler ve yer değiştirmeler artmaktadır. Bu nedenle düşey taşıyıcı sistemlerin planda mümkün olduğunca burulma etkisini azaltıcı şekilde yerleştirilmesi önemlidir. Burulma etkilerini en aza indirmek için rijitlik merkezi ile ağırlık merkezinin mümkün olduğunca yakın olması gerekmektedir. Her ne kadar mevcut deprem yönetmeliklerinin birçoğunda analiz aşamasında rijitlik merkezinin belirlenmesine ihtiyaç duyulmasa da özellikle burulma etkilerinin azaltılması açısından rijitlik merkezinin yerinin bilinmesi önemlidir. Uygulamada rijitlik merkezi ve kayma merkezi kavramları zaman zaman karıştırılmakta ve yanlış olarak bulunabilmektedir. Perde-çerçeve sistemlerde perde ve çerçevede hâkim davranışın farklı olması nedeniyle, perde ve çerçevelerin boyutlarının yapı yüksekliği boyunca sabit olması durumunda bile rijitlik merkezi kattan kata değişmektedir. Rijitlik merkezi bu tür yapılarda bazı katlarda plan dışına bile çıkabilmektedir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle rijitlik merkezi ve kayma merkezi kavramları kısaca açıklanmıştır. Daha sonra rijitlik merkezi ve kayma merkezinin bulunması için bir yaklaşım önerilmiştir. Sunulan yaklaşım literatürden alınan iki örnek üzerinde uygulanarak elde edilen sonuçlar literatür ve ETABS yazılımı ile karşılaştırılmış ve sunulan yöntemin uygunluğu gösterilmiştir.

A study on the effects of torsional component of ground motions on seismic response of low‐ and mid‐rise buildings

SummaryThe torsional component of ground motion is a potential factor to excite the torsional response of buildings during earthquake, which is not explicitly considered in seismic design codes. Building codes have proposed accidental eccentricity to consider the effect of torsional component and other unpredicted factors, which may contribute to torsion in buildings. This study investigated the effects of torsional component on the buildings' responses and the adequacy of the accidental eccentricity. For this purpose, the torsional component of some selected ground motions was generated using single‐station procedure. Subsequently, 5, 10, and 15‐story buildings with different ratios of rotational to translational frequencies were analyzed; first, by translational components only, and second, by simultaneous application of translational and torsional components. Also, the role of mass eccentricity in the effects of torsional component was studied. Furthermore, all models were reanalyzed by applying the 5% accidental eccentricity, and the effects of torsional component and accidental eccentricity were compared accordingly. Results indicated that torsional component has significant impact on the buildings' responses and can increase the displacement and drift ratio up to 36% and 41%, respectively. However, the 5% accidental eccentricity is not sufficient to take account the torsional component effects, and leads to unreliable responses.

The Role of Mass Eccentricity on the Earthquake Induced Torsion in Buildings

This paper investigates the effect of mass eccentricity on the earthquake induced torsion in buildings. An analytical solution is proposed, which identifies the location of a key structural element for which the torsional response of a structure is minimized for any height wise variation of the mass eccentricities. The accuracy of the analytical solution is then verified with parametric numerical modelling on 9-story buildings with height wise variations of the accidental eccentricities. The numerical modeling results show that the top rotations and base torques have an inverted peak, which indicates an optimum location of the key structural element, for which the torsional response of the structure is minimized. The location of the key element which minimizes the torsional response of the structure predicted by the analytical solution is verified with reasonable accuracy by the numerical modeling results.

Earthquake induced torsion in buildings: critical review and state of the art

The problem of earthquake induced torsion in buildings is quite old and although it has received a lot of attention in the past several decades, it is still open. This is evident not only from the variability of the pertinent provisions in various modern codes but also from conflicting results debated in the literature. Most of the conducted research on this problem has been based on very simplified, highly idealized models of eccentric one-story systems, with single or double eccentricity and with load bearing elements of the shear beam type, sized only for earthquake action. Initially, elastic models were used but were gradually replaced by inelastic models, since building response under design level earthquakes is expected to be inelastic. Code provisions till today have been based mostly on results from one-story inelastic models or on results from elastic multistory idealizations. In the past decade, however, more accurate multi story inelastic building response has been studied using the well-known and far more accurate plastic hinge model for flexural members. On the basis of such research some interesting conclusions have been drawn, revising older views about the inelastic response of buildings based on one-story simplified model results. The present paper traces these developments and presents new findings that can explain long lasting controversies in this area and at the same time may raise questions about the adequacy of code provisions based on results from questionable models. To organize this review better it was necessary to group the various publications into a number of subtopics and within each subtopic to separate them into smaller groups according to the basic assumptions and/or limitations used. Capacity assessment of irregular buildings and new technologies to control torsional motion have also been included.

ECONOMICAL PLACEMENT OF SHEAR WALLS IN A MOMENT RESISTING FRAME FOR EARTHQUAKE PROTECTION

Shear walls are one of the most basic lateral load resisting elements in an earthquake resistant building. To avoid torsion in buildings, shear walls must be placed symmetrically in plan. In this paper, a five-storey RC building located in seismic zone-V is considered with four shear walls. Five different configurations of shear walls viz. bare frame, shear wall symmetrically placed at exterior bays (centrally), at core and adjacently placed in exterior of the building, are considered. These frames are analysed for seismic forces to assess performance in terms of base shear, storey drift, member forces and joint displacements. The frame with shear walls at core and centrally placed at exterior bays showed significant reduction of order 29% to 83% in lateral displacement. The reduction in bending moments is approximately 70% to 85% for interior and perimeter columns respectively. Shear and axial forces in columns have reduced by 86% and 45% respectively. Then in order to make our building economically feasible we curtailed the top and second topmost storeys of our building and hence accordingly drew dawn the results in this paper.

Accidental design eccentricity: Is it important for the inelastic response of buildings to strong earthquakes?

To deal with earthquake-induced torsion in buildings due to some uncertain factors, difficult to account for directly in design, modern codes have introduced the so-called accidental design eccentricity (ADE). This provision has been based primarily on elastic investigations with special classes of multi-story buildings or with simplified, one-story inelastic models. In the present paper, the effectiveness of this provision is investigated using inelastic models, both of the typical one-story, 3-DOF type, and the more sophisticated MDOF, frame idealizations of the plastic hinge type. One, three and five story, realistic, frame buildings with different natural eccentricities were designed for different ADEs, including those specified by the EC8 and IBC codes. The evaluation is made using mean peak ductility factors of the edge frames as measures of their inelastic response, obtained from dynamic analyses for ten pairs of semi-artificial earthquake motions. The simplified models indicate that the accidental design eccentricity is very effective in reducing ductility demands, especially for very stiff systems. However, this is not confirmed by the more accurate and detailed plastic hinge building models, which show that designs accounting for accidental eccentricity do not exhibit any substantial reduction or better distribution of ductility demands, compared to designs in which accidental eccentricity has been entirely ignored. These findings suggest that the ADE provisions in codes, especially the more complicated ones as in the IBC, should be re-examined, by weighting their importance against the additional computational work they impose on designers. In the cases examined herein this importance can be characterized as marginal. Obviously additional studies are required, to include more building types and earthquake motions, in order to arrive at firm conclusions and recommendations for code modifications.

Accidental Torsion in Buildings: Analysis versus Earthquake Motions

A simplified analysis procedure has been developed to consider accidental torsion in building design that is rational and convenient relative to building codes. This procedure is extended and evaluated in this paper against measured accidental torsion determined from motions of 12 buildings—with nominally-symmetric plan—recorded during Northridge (1994), Loma Prieta (1989), Whittier (1987), and Upland (1990) earthquakes. The selected buildings include structures in reinforced concrete and in steel that cover a wide range of structural systems, including moment resisting frames, shear walls, braced frames, and hybrid systems. After the measured torsion is interpreted and compared to analytical estimates, it is demonstrated that this procedure is sufficiently accurate to be used in design applications.

Accidental torsion in buildings due to base rotational excitation

AbstractThis investigation is concerned with accidental torsion in buildings resulting from rotational excitation (about a vertical axis) of the building foundations as a result of spatially non‐uniform ground motions. Because of this accidental torsion, the displacements and deformations in the structural elements of the building are likely to increase. This increase in response is evaluated using actual base rotational excitations derived from ground motions recorded at the base of 30 buildings during recent California earthquakes. Accidental torsion has the effect of increasing the building displacements, in the mean, by less than 5 per cent for systems that are torsionally stiff or have lateral vibration periods longer than half a second. On the other hand, short period (less than half a second) and torsionally flexible systems may experience significant increases in response due to accidental torsion. Since the dependence between this increase in response and the system parameters is complex, two simplified methods are developed for conveniently estimating this effect of accidental torsion. They are the ‘accidental eccentricity’ and the ‘response spectrum’ method. The computed accidental eccentricities are much smaller than the typical code values, 0.05bb or 0.1b, except for buildings with very long plan dimensions (b ≥ 50 m). Alternatively, by using the response spectrum method the increase in response can be estimated by computing the peak response to each base motion independently and combining the peak values using the SRSS rule.

Accidental torsion in buildings due to stiffness uncertainty

AbstractDiscrepancies between the computed and actual values of the structural element stiffness imply that a building with nominally symmetric plan is actually asymmetric to some unknown degree and will undergo torsional vibration when subjected to purely translational ground motion. Such accidental torsion leads to increase in structural element deformations which is shown to be essentially insensitive to the uncoupled lateral vibration period of the system but is affected strongly by the ratio of uncoupled lateral and torsional vibration periods. The structural deformations increase, in the mean, by at most 10 and 5 per cent for R/C and steel buildings, respectively, and by much smaller amounts for a wide range of system parameters. The increase in structural deformations due to stiffness uncertainty is shown to be much smaller than implied by the accidental torsional provisions in the Uniform Building Code and most other building codes.