Seismic Analysis and Design of Vertically Irregular RC Building Frames

The objective of the paper is to carry out Response spectrum analysis (RSA) and Time history Analysis (THA) of vertically irregular RC building frames and to carry out the ductility based design using IS 13920 corresponding to Equivalent static analysis and Time history analysis. Three types of irregularities namely mass irregularity, stiffness irregularity and vertical geometry irregularity were considered. According to our observation, the storey shear force was found to be maximum for the first storey and it decreases to minimum in the top storey in all cases. The mass irregular structures were observed to experience larger base shear than similar regular structures. The stiffness irregular structure experienced lesser base shear and has larger inter-storey drifts. The absolute displacements obtained from time history analysis of geometry irregular structure at respective nodes were found to be greater than that in case of regular structure for upper stories but gradually as we moved to lower stories displacements in both structures tended to converge. Lower stiffness results in higher displacements of upper stories. In case of a mass irregular structure, time history analysis gives slightly higher displacement for upper stories than that in regular structures whereas as we move down lower stories show higher displacements as compared to that in regular structures. When time history analysis was done for regular as well as stiffness irregular structure, it was found that displacements of upper stories did not vary much from each other but as we moved down to lower stories the absolute displacement in case of soft storey were higher compared to respective stories in regular structure. If a high rise structure (low natural frequency) is subjected to high frequency ground motion then it results in small displacements. Similarly, if a low rise structure (high natural frequency) is subjected to high frequency ground motion it results in larger displacements whereas small displacements occur when the high rise structure is subjected to low frequency ground motion.