DRIFT DUE TO EARTHQUAKE ON TALL RISE BUILDINGS

REPORT

Of the Seminar (CE4092) carried out for partial fulfilment of the award of the degree in
Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering

By

NAME: KIRAN L VIJAYAN ROLL NO: B110138CE

Department of Civil Engineering

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT

August 2017

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this seminar entitled Drift Due To Earthquake on Tall Rise
Buildings is a bona fide record of the work carried out by during Monsoon 2017-2018 in
partial fulfilment of the credit requirements of CE4092 Seminar.

NAME: KIRAN L VIJAYAN ROLL NO: B110138CE

Seminar i/c

Date: 11/08/2017

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this occasion to thank God, Almighty for blessing me with his grace and taking
my endeavour to a successful culmination. I extend my sincere and heartfelt thanks to Dr.
HARIKRISHNA M for providing me with the right guidance and advice at the crucial
junctures and for showing me the right way. I would like to thank our head of the department
Dr.T ZACHARIA VARGHESE, for allowing us to use the facilities available. I would like
to thank the other faculty members also, at this occasion. I am grateful to all my friends for
providing critical feedback & support whenever required. Last but not least, I thank my
classmates and family members who were always a source of encouragement and helped us
in the successful completion of this seminar work.

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 ABSTRACT

In present scenario, in India many urban multi-storey buildings have open first storey
as a necessary feature in order to accommodate parking facility in the first storey. Buildings
constructed in seismically active areas are highly undesirable to such features. The behaviour
of a building during earthquakes depends mainly on its shape, size and overall geometry, and
how the lateral forces are carried to ground. The earthquake forces developed at different
floor levels in a building need to be passed to the ground by the shortest path. Buildings with
fewer columns tend to damage or collapse which is initiated in that storey. The structures in
high seismic areas may be susceptible to the severe damage. This study highlights the effect
of earthquake on tall buildings.
The prediction of earthquake is not at all possible, but earthquake forces are attaining
increasing importance. So as, adequate strength and stability against lateral loads should be
provided while designing. For this reason, earthquake forces are one of the major determining
factors in high-rise building design. These lateral loads are main cause for drift. So drifting
should be considered on design of tall structures.
The tallness of a structure cannot be defined in relation to height or number of stories.
Buildings having 9 or more stories are considered as high-rise structures by the council of
Tall Building and Urban Habitat. But, according to structural engineers, the tall structure or
multi-storied building is one that is affected by lateral forces due to wind or earthquake or
both, by virtue of its height. Lateral loads can develop stresses, sway movement or even
cause vibration. Tall building is strongly wind sensitive and seismic forces, which result from
the distortion of the ground and also the inertial resistance of the building. These forces cause
horizontal deflection in multi-storied or tall buildings called drift. Lateral deflection and drift
can affect the structural elements like beams and columns, can affect non-structural elements
like windows and cladding and can affect adjacent structures. Design process without proper
consideration can result in large deflections and drifts on building. In this paper, drift of tall
rise buildings in the event of earthquake is studied along with the performance of the
buildings and the remedies are suggested.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

REPORT ................................................................................................................................................ 1
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT ............................................................ 1
CERTIFICATE ..................................................................................................................................... 2
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................ 4
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 7
2. EARTHQUAKE ...................................................................................................................................... 9
2.1 WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?.......................................................................................................... 9
2.2 EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE ON BUILDINGS.................................................................................. 10
2.3 GROUND MOTION AND BUILDING FREQUENCIES ...................................................................... 11
2.4 BUILDING FREQUENCY AND PERIOD .......................................................................................... 12
2.5 RESONANT FREQUENCIES ........................................................................................................... 13
3. EARTHQUAKE DRIFT .......................................................................................................................... 15
3.1 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS ........................................................................... 16
3.2 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON NON-STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS .................................................................. 16
3.3 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON ADJACENT STRUCTURES ........................................................................... 17
3.4 STORY DRIFT................................................................................................................................ 18
4. P-DELTA ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................. 20
5. DRIFT REDUCTION TECHNIQUE ........................................................................................................ 22
6. RECOMMENDATION ......................................................................................................................... 23
7. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 24
8. REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................................ 25

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 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1: BUILDING HEIGHTS & NATURAL FREQUENCY .......................................................... 12

Figure 1: Movement of seismic waves along the planes of faults ........................................................ 10

Figure 2: Frequency of ground motion ................................................................................................. 11
Figure 3: Resonance effect variation in short & tall building ............................................................... 14
Figure 4: Drift mechanism .................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 5: Story drift in buildings .......................................................................................................... 19
Figure 6: P-Delta Analysis .................................................................................................................... 20
Figure 7: Figure showing convergence tolerance set as 0.5% .............................................................. 21
Figure 8: Outline of the specimen ......................................................................................................... 22
Figure 9: Safeguard System to Protect Shaking Table.......................................................................... 22

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 1. INTRODUCTION

The study of seismic or earthquake engineering has long been an area of great interest
in the field of structural engineering. It is also a major concern in the civil engineering
profession in countries where earthquakes are known to frequently occur. As building heights
increases, the forces of nature begin to dominate the structural system and take on importance
in the overall building system. The analysis and design of tall building are affected by lateral
loads, particularly drift or sway caused by such loads. Drift or sway is the magnitude of the
lateral displacement at the top of the building relative to its base. Recent studies have found
that the drift provisions in the UBC, 1997 are extremely complicated, are fairly difficult to
use, and may be over conservative. It can be very difficult to ensure that exterior elements
conform to the drift requirements in current codes. However, Lateral deflection is the
predicted movement of a structure under lateral loads; and story drift is defined as the
difference in lateral deflection between two adjacent stories. During an earthquake, large
lateral forces can be imposed on structures, require that the designer assess the effects of this
deformation on both structural and non-structural elements. The lateral displacement of a
frame places beam-column joints under shear stresses because of the change from positive to
negative bending in the flexural members from one side of the joint to the other. Lateral
deflection and drift have three primary effects on a structure; the movement can affect the
structural elements (such as beams and columns); the movements can affect non-structural
elements (such as the windows and cladding); and the movements can affect adjacent
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structures. Without proper consideration during the design process, large deflections and
drifts can have adverse effects on structural elements, non-structural elements and adjacent
structures. When the initial sizes of the frame members have been selected, an approximate
check on the horizontal drift of the structures can be made. The drift in the non-slender rigid
frame is mainly caused by racking. This racking may be considered as comprising two
components: the first is due to rotation of the joints, as allowed by the double bending of the
girders, while the second is caused by double bending of the columns. If the rigid frame is
slender, a contribution to drift caused by the overall bending of the frame, resulting from
axial deformations of the columns may be significant. If the frame has a height width ratio
less than 4:1, the contribution of overall bending to the total drift at the top of the structure is
usually less than 10% of that due to racking. High-rise buildings were especially affected due
to the nature of their slenderness in height and to the geometry of their layout.

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 2. EARTHQUAKE

2.1 WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?

An Earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the earth caused by the breaking and
shifting of rocks beneath the earth surface. Over time, stresses build beneath the Earths
surface. Occasionally, stress is released resulting in the sudden and sometime disastrous
shaking which we call an earthquake. The shaking could last seconds or minutes, and there
may be several earthquakes over a period ranging from hours to weeks called foreshocks and
aftershocks, the later decreasing in magnitude with time.

Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in the Earths crust is
suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly
fracture and slip. Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults, narrow zones where
rock masses move in relation to one another. The major fault lines of the world are located at
the fringes of the huge tectonic plates that make up the Earths crust.

Little was understood about earthquakes until the emergence of seismology at the
beginning of the 20th century. Seismology, which involves the scientific study of all aspects
of earthquakes, has yielded answers to such long-standing questions as why and
how earthquakes occur. About 50,000 earthquakes large enough to be noticed without the aid
of instruments occur annually over the entire Earth. Of these, approximately 100 are of
sufficient size to produce substantial damage if their centres are near areas of habitation. Very
great earthquakes occur on average about once per year. Over the centuries they have been
responsible for millions of deaths and an incalculable amount of damage to property.

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 2.2 EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE ON BUILDINGS

Earthquake results not only in hazard associated with direct shaking effect on buildings.
Other effects including surface faulting, tectonic uplift and subsidence landslides, soil
liquefaction, and tsunamis etc have also played important part in destruction produced by
earthquakes resulting in everything from massive loss of life, infrastructure damage, and
financial instability. The dynamic response of the building to earthquake ground motion is
the most important cause of earthquake-induced damage to buildings. Failure of the
ground and soil beneath buildings is also a major cause of damage. However, contrary to
popular belief, buildings are rarely, if ever, damaged because of fault displacement
beneath a building.

Figure 1: Movement of seismic waves along the planes of faults

To briefly review the basics of earthquake generation:

Most earthquakes result from rapid movement along the plane of faults within the
earth's crust. (see figure above)

This sudden movement of the fault releases a great deal of energy, which then
travels through the earth in the form of seismic waves.

The seismic waves travel for great distances before finally losing most of their
energy.
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Large structures or high rise buildings are more affected by low-frequency, or slow shaking.
For instance, an ocean liner will experience little disturbance by short waves in quick
succession. However, a low-frequency swell will significantly affect the ship. Similarly, a
skyscraper will sustain greater shaking by long-period earthquake waves than by the shorter
waves.

2.3 GROUND MOTION AND BUILDING FREQUENCIES

When the earthquake ground motion occurs beneath a building and when it is strong
enough, it sets the building in motion, starting with the building's foundation, and
transfers the motion throughout the rest of the building in a very complex way. These
motions in turn induce forces which can produce damage.

The characteristics of earthquake ground motions which have the greatest

importance for buildings are the duration, amplitude (of displacement, velocity and
acceleration) and frequency of the ground motion. Frequency is defined as the number of
complete cycles of vibration made by the wave per second.

Figure 2: Frequency of ground motion

Here, we can consider a complete vibration to be the same as the distance between
one crest of the wave and the next, in other words one full wavelength. (See Figure
above.) Frequency is often measured in units called Hertz. Thus, if two full waves pass in
one second, the frequency is 2 hertz.

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 Surface ground motion at the building site is actually a complex superposition of
different vibration frequencies. We should also mention that at any given site, some
frequencies usually predominate. The distribution of frequencies in a ground motion is
referred to as its frequency content.

The response of the building to ground motion is as complex as the ground motion
itself, yet typically quite different. It also begins to vibrate in a complex manner, and
because it is now a vibratory system, it also possesses frequency content. However, the
building's vibrations tend to centre around one particular frequency that is known as its
natural or fundamental frequency. Generally, the shorter a building is the higher its natural
frequency, and the taller the building is, the lower its natural frequency.

2.4 BUILDING FREQUENCY AND PERIOD

Another way to understand this is to think of the building's response in terms of

another important quantity, the building's natural period. The building period is simply the
inverse of the frequency, Whereas the frequency is the number of times per second that
the building will vibrate back and forth, the period is the time it takes for the building to
make one complete vibration. The relationship between frequency f and period T is thus
very simple.
Table 1: BUILDING HEIGHTS & NATURAL FREQUENCY

Building Height Typical Natural Period

2 story 0.2 seconds

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 5 story 0.5 seconds

10 story 1.0 second

20 story 2.0 second

30 story 3.0 second

50 story 5.0 Seconds

2.5 RESONANT FREQUENCIES

Actually resonance is a phenomenon in which a vibrating system or external force drives

another system to oscillate with higher amplitude at specific frequencies. Resonance
frequencies are the natural frequencies at which it is easiest to get an object to vibrate. All
buildings have a resonance, which is actually the number of seconds the building would take
to naturally vibrate back and forth. The ground also has a specific resonant frequency. Inner
hard bedrock has higher frequencies softer sediments. The natural resonance of a building
will undergo the largest oscillations possible and suffer the greatest damage if the period of
ground motion matches with it.

When the frequency contents of the ground motion are centred on the building's
natural frequency, we say that the building and the ground motion are in resonance with one
another. Resonance tends to increase or amplify the building's response. Because of this,

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buildings suffer the greatest damage from ground motion at a frequency close or equal to
their own natural frequency.

Figure 3: Resonance effect variation in short & tall building

The Mexico City earthquake of September 19, 1985 provides a striking illustration
of this. A majority of the many buildings which collapsed during this earthquake were
around 20 stories tall--i.e., they had a natural period of around 2.0 seconds. These 20 story
buildings were in resonance with the frequency contents of the 1985 earthquake. Other
buildings, of different heights and with different vibration characteristics, were often
found undamaged even though they were located right next to the damaged 20 story
buildings.

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 3. EARTHQUAKE DRIFT

A horizontal force applied to an object tends to push it sideways. If it is unrestrained

at its base, it slides in the direction of the applied force. With buildings, sliding is
counteracted by the frictional sliding resistance between the bottom of the foundation and the
soil and by the lateral bearing resistance of the soil against the vertical faces of the foundation
and piles. Lateral forces acting above the foundation push the superstructures sideways until
the resistance of the structure reaches equilibrium with that force. The amount of horizontal
displacement that occurs is called drift. Drift causes stress in structural seismic elements and
non-structural elements because it forces them into deformed shapes. Maximum drift usually
occurs at the top of a building, but each story level is subjected to ascertain amount of story
drift.

Figure 4: Drift mechanism

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 3.1 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

In terms of seismic design, lateral deflection and drift can affect both the structural
elements that are part of the lateral force resisting system and structural elements that are not
part of the lateral force resisting system. In terms of the lateral force resisting system, when
the lateral forces are placed on the structure, the structure responds and moves due to those
forces. Consequently, there is a relationship between the lateral force resisting system and its
movement under lateral loads; this relationship can be analysed by hand or by computer.
Using the results of this analysis, estimates of other design criteria, such as rotations of joints
in eccentric braced frames and rotations of joints in special moment resisting frames can be
obtained. Similarly, the lateral analysis can also be used and should be used to estimate the
effect of lateral movements on structural elements that are not part of the lateral force
resisting system, such as beams and columns that are not explicitly considered as being part
of the lateral force resisting system.

Design provisions for moment frame and eccentric braced frame structures have
requirements to ensure the ability of the structure to sustain inelastic rotations resulting from
deformation and drift. Without proper consideration of the expected movement of the
structure, the lateral force resisting system might experience premature failure and a
corresponding loss of strength. In addition, if the lateral deflections of any structure become
too large, P- effects can cause instability of the structure and potentially result in collapse.

3.2 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON NON-STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

Since lateral deflection and drift affect the entire building or structure, design of non-
structural elements is also governed by these parameters. The non-structural elements should
be designed to allow the expected movement of the structural system. If the non-structural
elements are not adequately isolated from the movements of the lateral force resisting system,
adverse effects are likely to occur. For example, in a large earthquake, the cladding may
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become damaged or fall off the structure, posing a life-safety hazard to passers-by. Even in
smaller earthquakes, if the cladding does not permit lateral movement of the structure, the
cladding may experience premature damage, resulting in water intrusion and/or economic
loss. Similarly, if windows do not permit movement of the structure, the windows may break,
posing a potentially significant falling hazard.

The effects of deflections and drift on stair assemblies are sometimes neglected.
Without proper detailing that permits adequate inter story movement to occur, stair
assemblies have the potential to act as a diagonal brace between floors; the stair assemblies
resist the movement of the structural frame until damage to the stair assemblies or their
connections occurs. If the vertical support for the stair assembly breaks or is damaged, the
stairs can collapse during the earthquake or even after the earthquake as the occupants
attempt to exit. Finally, if the non-structural elements are not adequately isolated from the
structural elements, the non-structural elements may interfere with the structural elements and
cause adverse effects to the structural elements themselves, creating short columns, torsion or
stiffness irregularities.

3.3 EFFECT OF DRIFT ON ADJACENT STRUCTURES

Under lateral loads from a large earthquake, the expected movements of a structure
can be significant. If adjacent buildings or structurally separate portions of the same
structure do not have adequate separation, they may pound against each other during an
earthquake. Pounding can have significant adverse effects, especially when the floors are
not co-planar. Pounding of structures with non-co-planar floors can result in the floors of
one building impacting the columns of another building at mid-height. This impact
induces large shears and bending moments into the impacted columns, potentially causing
the columns to fail and the structure to collapse.

When adjacent structures have coplanar floors, pounding may be advantageous in

some respects. If floors are coplanar, the two adjacent structures will have a more difficult
time resonating with the earthquake. Since pounding is a highly non-linear response,

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 pounding will tend to damp out vibrations and reduce the responses of the two structures.
However, the pounding is likely to increase floor accelerations and is likely to result in
significant localized damage between the structures.

3.4 STORY DRIFT

Lateral drift also called as story drift is the amount of sides way between two adjacent
stories of a building caused by lateral (wind as well as seismic) loads. For a single-story
building, lateral drift equals the amount of horizontal roof displacement.

Story drift is defined as the difference in lateral deflection between two adjacent
stories. For a single-story building, lateral drift equals the amount of horizontal roof
displacement. Horizontal deflection of a wall refers to its horizontal movement between
supports under wind or earthquake loading. Vertical deflection of a floor or roof structural
member is the amount of sag under gravity or other vertical loading. During an earthquake,
large lateral forces can be imposed on structures. For buildings with a natural period less than
0.7 seconds, inelastic drift is limited to a maximum of 0.025 times the storey height. . For
buildings with a natural period of 0.7 seconds or greater, the more stringent drift is imposed
of 0.020 times the story height.

Actually story drifts and story displacement both mean the same thing. Story drift is
defined as ratio of displacement of two consecutive floors to height of that floor. It is very
important term used for research and other purpose in earthquake engineering while story
displacement is total displacement of its storey with respect to ground and there is maximum
permissible limit prescribed in IS codes for buildings.

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Figure 5: Story drift in buildings

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 4. P-DELTA ANALYSIS

The P-Delta effect refers to the abrupt changes in ground shear, and overturning moment of a
sufficiently tall structure or structural component when it is subject to a lateral displacement.
It is a destabilizing moment a structure undergoes when laterally loaded and is equal to the
force of gravity multiplied by the horizontal displacement. If the lateral displacement or the
vertical loads through the structure are significant, then the P-Delta Analysis should be
performed for the non-linearity.

When a model is loaded, it deflects. The deflections in the members of the model may
induce secondary moments due to the fact that the ends of the member may no longer be
vertical in the deflected position. These secondary effects for members can be accurately
approximated through the use of P-Delta analysis.

This type of analysis is called P-Delta because the magnitude of the secondary
moment is equal to P, the axial force in the member, times Delta, the distance one end of
the member is offset from the other end.

Figure 6: P-Delta Analysis

Step 1: The model is loaded with the Applied loads (P)

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Step 2: The model deflects , and the secondary shear force (V) is calculated for every
member using equation,

V= P *

Step 3: The model is re-solved (internally) with the secondary shear forces applied (V).

Step 4: The displacements for this new solution are compared to those obtained from the
previous solution. If they fall within the convergence tolerance, the solution has converged. If
not, return to Step 2 and repeat.

The convergence tolerance is found in the Global Parameters dialog box and is set by
default to 0.5%.

Figure 7: Figure showing convergence tolerance set as 0.5%

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5. DRIFT REDUCTION TECHNIQUE

Figure 8: Outline of the specimen

Figure 9: Safeguard System to Protect Shaking Table

(Each system prevent inter-story drift beyond 1/3.5 rad)

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 6. RECOMMENDATION

Based on the above discussion, it appears that a more restrictive drift limit for longer-
period structures is unwarranted, since low-rise and mid-rise structures have historically
performed far worse than modern high-rises. In fact, conventional structural engineering
wisdom dictates that the best place to be in a major earthquake (other than an open field or
possibly in a base-isolated structure) is in a high-rise. This confidence in tall, long-period
structures is due to the ability of the longer-period structures to accommodate relatively large
displacement demands with relatively small displacements on each floor.
For example, if a 50-story structure experiences 1.5-inches of displacement per floor
(only 1%story drift assuming 13-foot high stories), that displacement equates to a 50-inch
spectral displacement demand. If the same structure can withstand say twice that amount, i.e.
2% story drift that equates to a spectral displacement capacity of 100-inches, more than
sufficient to ride out even the largest recorded earthquakes, possibly without even
experiencing inelastic behaviour. Finally, as stated earlier, since shorter period structures can
have difficulty escaping from the constant acceleration region of the response spectrum, with
shorter-period structures allowed smaller drift limits and longer-period structures allowed
larger drift limits. By increasing the stiffness of low-rise structures, the strength of these
structures is generally increased, and ductility demands on these structures as they struggle to
escape the constant acceleration region of the response spectrum are generally decreased.
Also buildings must have adequate separation to avoid the damaging effects of pounding
during earthquakes.
A well designed building should not have significant P-Delta effects. Analyses with
and without the P-Delta effects will yield the magnitude of the P-Delta effects separately. If
these lateral displacements differ by more than 5%, for the same lateral load, the basic design
may be too flexible and a redesign should be considered.

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 7. CONCLUSION

The numbers of high rise building is increasing day by day. Prediction of earthquake
is not feasible at all. So it is a threat to all, especially the tall structures of the mega cities. So
the tall structures are on the threat, due to earthquake drift occurrence. Hence every high rise
structure should consider the effect of drift. Then the loss of life and property will be
attenuated. In this study, we have seen the effect of drift on buildings especially tall rise
buildings. This study indicates that the drift on high rise structures has to be considered as it
has a notable magnitude. So every tall structure should include the drift due to earthquake
load as well as wind load.

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 8. REFERENCE

1. Rahman, A. A. Masseur Ahmed and M. R. Mamun (2012), Drift analysis due to

earthquake load on tall structures, Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction
Technology Vol. 4(5), pp. 154-158.

2. Gary r. Searer and sigmund a. Freeman(2004), Design drift requirements for long-period
structures, 13th world conference on earthquake engineering Vancouver, B.C., Canada,
paper no. 3292

3.Hong Fan, Q.S. Li, Alex Y. Tuan, LihuaXu (2009), Seismic analysis of the world's tallest
building, Journal of Constructional Steel Research 65,pg- 1206-1215.

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