Study of lateral load resisting system of variable height in all soil types of high seismic zone

Earthquakes have been a threat to civil structures from a great time. With technological events, the structures have become all the slenderer and lighter and are thus more susceptible to damage by earthquakes as they undergo more sway under the effect of wind loads.  

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1. GIS

2. Structural & Foundation Analysis

3. CPM & BIM

4. Tall Building Design

5. Construction Technology (Career Building Course)

6. Foundation Design

7. Construction Project Management

8. Building Information Modelling

9. Seismic Design

10. Quantity Surveying

11. ETABS Software

12. Project Management with Primavera

Many measures have been taken to make the structures resistant to damage caused by earthquakes and one of those measures is the use of lateral load resisting systems in the building configurations. Earlier only gravity loads were given importance but now the effect of height and seismic load has made the lateral load equally important. The lateral loads basically wind loads and earthquake loads.

The design of the building depends to a great extent on the seismic zone in which the building lies and the soil type.

In this civil project, you have to use a square grid in each direction on a model of the building designed using the ETABS software. The model has to analyse for different cases by varying different parameters to study the effect of different cases on buildings with different conditions and different types of soil.

Building design:

The design of a multi-storeyed building involves the selection of proper structural elements and their arrangements. The whole purpose is to design a structure that is able to resist both lateral and gravity loads. The factors which should be taken care of are the internal design, the material used, location of the structure, magnitude and nature of the loads, and height of the structure.

You should take care of the following things:

• The structure should be symmetrical and regular in the plan as well as elevation and should have a uniform and continuous distribution of mass, strength, stiffness, etc.
• The building should be as light as possible. Large masses lead to large seismic forces.
• The height to width to width ratio of the structure should not be too much.
• Cantilevers should be avoided in the superstructure.

In this project, you have to determine parameters like lateral shift, drifts, base shear, time period at buildings of different height in all types of soil. The results will be recorded for structures with bare frame, frames with shear walls, structures with bracings and at the end you have to compare the results in all the three cases.

The analysis has to be done by the Response Spectrum Method.

1. Moment Resistant Frame: Consisting of beams and columns, this frame is used for buildings up to 15 stories and the lateral load bearing capacity of the structure depends on the bending stiffness of beams and columns.
2. Shear walls are continuous concrete walls that are completely responsible for lateral load resistance in tall buildings. They have very high stiffness and strength.
3. In braced frames, the lateral resistance of the structure is provided by diagonal members that together with the beams form the web of the vertical truss with the columns acting as chords.

Project Implementation:

1. As the first step to this project, design a 3D model of a building on the ETABS software.

You need to specify parameters like:

• Type of soil
• Seismic Zone
• Building height
• Floor to floor height
• Material used, etc.

2. Once you are ready with the model, you need to apply loads on the design. Values for all types of loads like live loads, wind loads, gravity load, earthquake load, etc has to be specified.
3. Then you have to study the effect of the applied loads on the structure. The study has to be done by the Response Spectrum Method.
4. You need to study different cases by changing the parameters and the load values and compare all the cases for lateral drift, base shear, etc.

Conclusion:

In the end, you will have a detailed report of the effects of different factors on the different type of structure on different soil type. Thus, you can decide which of the cases is best for resisting the lateral loads.

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Study of lateral load resisting system of variable height in all soil types of high seismic zone