BEHAVIOUR OF SOFT STOREY RC FRAMED BUILDING UNDER SEISMIC LOADING

Indian urbanization has led to increase in demand for construction of commercial floors, parking facilities in the lower stories of building. The location of open storey at different levels in a building is most vulnerable to seismic forces which may lead to either partial damage or collapse of the building above that floor. The conventional design methods are not accountable for such failures in past earthquakes. In this article attempts are made to explain the factors that impact the soft storey failure in a building. Pushover analysis has been carried out for a G+9 multistoried building to study the soft storey effect at different floor levels using SAP 2000 software. The behavior of RC framed building with soft storey under seismic loading has been observed in terms of hinge formation patterns, total lateral drift, storey shear, overturning moment, and time period for considered structure. It is observed that infill wall has significant effect in the stiffness and lateral resistance of frame.