Earthquake Resistant Building Structures

Shubhayu Dutta, Smita S. Kamble, Nikhil V. Bandwal

Civil Engineering Department, Yashwantrao Chavan College Of Engineering, Nagpur.
shubhayu_dutta@yahoo.com smitakamble90@gmail.com nikhilbandwal4@gmail.com.com Abstract--We know that now a days, reinforced concrete buildings are widely used on a large scale, in almost in every nook and corner of the world. Further it should be taken into account that, at some part, EARTHQUAKE is responsible for the failure and dismantilation of structures, apart from bad workmanship, which results into loss of life to the most other than financial losses. Hence while building structures; Earthquake resistant philosophy should be taken into consideration. As the saying goes PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE. Thus we should try to build earthquake resistant buildings rather than go for rehabilitation after the building undergoes failure. Earthquake shaking generates inertia forces in the building, which are proportional to building mass. Earthquake resistant buildings, especially their main elements, need to be built with ductility in them. This is because ductile members undergo more deformation before failing. Further all major components like Foundation, Beams, Columns, Beam-column joint; Shear walls should be well designed. If the structure is build in a high a high seismic zone it is essential that structures should be isolated or even seismic dampers should be provided for more safety. Design of beam, a horizontal member in RC building for seismic performance is very essential. Beams fail due to flexural and shear failure. Column, a vertical member in a building, should also be well designed for good seismic performance. Indian Standard IS13920-1993 prescribes design for both beam and column. Design of beam-column joint, and shear wall importance should be taken into consideration in RC building for good seismic performance. Vertical plates like RC walls, called shear walls should be provided in addition to slab, beams and columns. Shear walls are likely vertically oriented wide beams that carry earthquake load downwards to foundation. We cannot afford to build concrete buildings meant to resist several earthquakes without shear walls. Reinforcement bars in RC walls, isolation technique and dampers are the most important for earthquake proof building. Earthquake Resistant Structures therefore depend on capacity of structures to resist the earthquake inertial force.
I. INTRODUCTION

Earthquake is catastrophic movement of earths surface causing the ground to shake. Primary cause of earthquake is the rapture of fault in the earth crust and associated rapid slips on the faults. Large strain energy released during an earthquake and then travel as seismic wave in all direction through earths layer. Seismic waves then pass through structural components such as foundation, beams, columns, column-beam-joints, slab, that generate inertia forces at top of structure due to which structure may collapse. This leads to loss of human beings and financial losses too. So, to avoid this, performance of building during earthquake has to improve. As now a days, reinforced concrete buildings are mostly used, some design for improving performance of RCC building during earthquake are given in paper. The majority of deaths, injuries and losses from earthquake are caused by the damage or collapse of buildings and other structural components. These losses can be reduced through documenting and understanding how structures respond to earthquakes. Gaining such knowledge requires a long term commitment because large devastating earthquakes occur at irregular and often long intervals. Recording instruments must be in place and waiting, ready o capture the response to the next temblor whenever it occurs. The new information acquired by these instruments can then be used to better design earthquake resistant structures. II . WHAT IS EARTHQUAKE ? Earthquakes are the earth natural means of releasing stress. When the earths plates move against each other, stress is put on the lithosphere. When this stress is great enough, the lithosphere breaks or shifts. Imagine holding a pencil horizontally. If you were to apply a force to both ends, you would see the pencil bend. After enough force was applied, the pencil would break in the middle, releasing the stress you have put on it. The earths crust acts in the same way as the plates move, they put forces on themselves. When the forces are large enough, the crust is forced to break. When the break occurs, the stresses are released as energy which moves through earth in the form of waves, which we feel and call an Earthquake. Energy is released during the earthquake in several

forms, including as movement along the fault, as heat, and seismic waves that radiate out from the source and causes the ground to shake, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away. III. CAUSES Earthquakes cause from deformation of outer, brittle portions from tectonic plates the earths outermost layer of crust and upper mantle. Due to heating and cooling of the rocks below these plates resulting convections causes the adjacently overlying plates to move, under great stresses. Sometimes tremendous energy is emendous built-up within a single or between neighbouring plates. If the up cumulated stress exceeds the strength of the rocks, the rocks can break suddenly, releasing the stored energy as an earthquake. IV. BUILDINGS RESPONSE TO EARTHQUAKE Response of the building to ground motion is as ponse complicated 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, which is known as its natural or fundamental frequency.The building during earthquake g experiences displacement and acceleration. Building does not undergo displacements that are large compared to the building size itself. So it is not the distance that the building moves that causes damage, instead, it is more of the sudden force that causes the building to shift quickly that causes the building to suffer damage. This is governed by Newton's 2nd mage. law of motion. F=ma It is important to know that F is actually what's known as an inertial force, that is, the force created by the building's tendency to remain at rest, and in its original position, even though the t ground beneath it is moving. This is in accordance with another important physical law known as D'Alembert's Principle. V. BEHAVIOR OF RC BUILDING DURING EARTHQUAKE The earthquake shaking generates inertia forces in the building which are proportional to the building mass. These forces travel oportional downward through slab; and beam to column; and then column to foundation from where they are dispersed to the ground.(Fig:2) persed Therefore, lower storey experiences higher earthquake induced forces and thus should be designed to be stronger than those in storey above (Fig:1)
Fig:1 Total earthquake forces increases from top to bottom.

Fig:2

VI. SEISMIC DESIGN CRITERIA Severity of ground shaking at given location during earthquake can be minor, moderate or strong. Minor shaking occurs frequently; moderate shaking, occasionally and strong shaking rarely. The structures may be designed by the following criteria: criteria:a) Under minor, but frequent shaking the main members of the r building can carry vertical and horizontal forces should not be damaged, however building parts that do not carry load may sustain repairable damages. B) Under moderate, occasional shaking, the main members may sustain repairable damage, while bers the other parts of the building may be damaged such that they may even have to be replaced after earthquake. C) Under strong but rare shaking, main members may sustain severe damage but the building should not collapse. apse. VII. DESIGNS OF BEAMS For a building to remain safe during earthquake shaking, ilding columns (which receives forces from beam), should be stronger than beams; and foundations(which receives forces from columns), should be stronger than columns. Further, connection between beams and columns; and columns and foundations should not fail so that beams can safely transfer forces to columns and columns to foundation. When this strategy is adopted in design, damage is likely to occur initially in beams. When beams are built properly to have large amounts. In contrast, if columns are made weaker, they ts. suffer severe local damage at the top and bottom of a particular storey. This localized damage can lead to collapse of a building, although columns at storey level above remain almost undamaged. Beam is a horizontal member in RC building. Beam can s sustain basically two types of failure:-namely flexural or bending namely failure and shear failure. Designing a beam involves selection of its materials properties; amount and displacement of steel; to provide in the beam. These must be determined by performing deign calculations as per Indian standards IS 13920 13920-1993.longitudinal

bars and stirrups should be provided in a beam for better performance. F

2. 3.

They hold together the vertical bar and prevent them from excessively bending outward called buckling. They contain concrete in the column within the loop.

Fig: Beam Reinforcement as per IS 13920-1993

1. Longitudinal bar:- Longitudinal bar is provided to resist flexural cracking on the side the beam that stretches. Since both top and bottom faces stretch during strong earthquake shaking, longitudinal steel bars are required on both faces at the end and on the bottom face at mid length. Indian standard code IS 139201993 prescribes that. 1. At least two bars go through the full length of the beam at the top as well as bottom of the beam. 2. At the end of the beams, the amount of steel provided at the bottom is at least half that at the top. 2.Stirrups: Stirrups in RC beam helps in three ways:a)They carry the vertical shear force and thereby resist diagonal shears cracks b)They protect the concrete from bulging outward, due to flexure. c)They prevents the buckling of compressed longitudinal bars due to flexure. VIII. DESIGN OF COLUMNS Column is the vertical member in building consisting of two steel reinforcement namely long straight bars called longitudinal bar and tansverse ties placed at regular intervals. Obviously, the columns should be straight. Column sustains two types of damages as axial flexural failure and shear failure. Designing of column involves selection of material to be used, choosing shape and size of cross section and calculating amount steel distribution. Column should be at least 300mm wide. Column that requires resisting earthquake must be designed to prevent shear failure by skilful selection of reinforcement. Closely spaced horizontal closed ties help in three ways:1. They carry horizontal shear induced by earthquake and resist diagonal shear cracks.

Fig: Column and joint detailing as per IS 13920-1993

The end of the ties must be bent as 135 hook. Such hook end prevents opening of loops and consequently buckling of concrete and bulging of vertical bars. Indian standard IS13920-1993 prescribes that for earthquake resist column. a) Closely spaced ties must be provided at the two ends of column over a length not less than larger dimension of the column one sixth of the column height or 450mm. Over the distance specified in paragraph above the beam-column junction, the vertical spacing of the ties in the column should not exceed D/4. Where D, is the smallest dimension of the column. This spacing need not more than 100mm and less than 75mm. The length of tie beyond the 1356 bend must be at least 10 times diameter of steel bar used to make closed tie; this extension beyond the bend should not be less than 75mm. IX.DESIGN OF BEAM-COLUMN JOINT In RC buildings, portion of column that is common to the beam at their intersection is called beam-column joint. This joint has limited force carrying capacity. When forces, larger than these are applied during earthquake, joints are severely damaged. Under earthquake shaking, beams adjoining a joint are subjected to moments(clockwise and anticlockwise direction). These forces are balanced by bond stresses developed by concrete and steel in joint region. If the column is not wide enough or if

b)

c)

strength of concrete in joint region is low, there is insufficient i grip of concrete on steel bar. In such circumstances the bar slips inside the joint region and beams lose their capacity to carry load. Further under action of pull-push force at the top and bottom end, op if column cross sectional size is insufficient, the concrete in the nsufficient, joint develops diagonal cracks. Problem of diagonal cracking and crushing of concrete in joint region can be controlled by providing closely spaced closed-loop closed steel ties around column bar in the joint region. The ties hold together the concrete in the joint and also resist shear force and hear reducing the cracking and crushing of concrete. X.SHEAR WALL

can be a few times smaller than that experienced by the building build directly on ground. The flexible pads are called base isolators, whereas the structures which are protected by means of these devices are called base isolated structures. This technology introduces the flexibility in structures. Therefore, a robust medium rise masonry or reinforced rein concrete building becomes extremely flexible. The isolation is often designed to absorb energy and thus add damping to the system. This helps in reducing the seismic response of the building. The brand of isolation available in the market looks like a rubber pads. Base isolation is not suitable for all building. It is not suitable for high-rise building or building rested on soft soil. rise XII. SEISMIC DAMPERS

Vertical plate like RC wall in RC building called shear in addition to lab, beams and column. These walls generally start at foundation level and continuous throughout the building height. There thickness can be as low as 150mm or as high as 400mm in high-rise buildings. Shear walls are like vertically oriented wide rise beams that carry earthquake load downwards to foundation foundation.

We can improve the seismic performance of the building by installing seismic dampers in place of structural elements, such as e diagonal braces. These damper acts like the hydraulic shock absorber in car-much of the sudden jerks absorbs part of it and much thus damps the motion of the building. Dampers were used since 1990s to protect building against earthquake effects. Hence use of dampers has proven very effective during earthquakes. Commonly used seismic dampers are: are:1.Viscous damper:- Energy is absorbed by silicone based fluid passing between piston-cylinder cylinder arrangement. 2. Friction damper:- Energy is absorbed by surface with friction between them rubbing against each other. 3. Yielding damper:- Energy is absorbed by metall components metallic that yield as shown in figure below.

Advantages of shear walls:- We cannot afford to build concrete bu building meant to resist severe earthquake without shear walls. Shear wall are effective both in terms of construction cost and effectiveness in minimizing earthquake damage in structural and non-structural elements like glass window and building contents. structural build Shear walls in building must be symmetrically located in plane to reduce ill effect of twist in building. Shear walls are more effective when located along exterior perimeter of the building. Such a layout increases resistance of the building to twisting. Shear walls perform well if designed to be ductile. XI. BASE ISOLATION TECHNIQUE The concept of base isolation is to isolate the building from the ground in such a way that earthquake motion are not transmitted up through the building or at least greatly reduced. If r the building is made to rest on flexible pads that offer resistant against lateral movement, then some effect of the ground shaking will be transferred to the building above. If the building flexible pads are properly chosen the force induced by ground Shaking ed

Fig Seismic Dampers

XIII. CONCLUSION Earthquake is not wholly responsible for failure of structures, but improper designing of structural elements are responsible. Thus a combined effect of Better workmanship, best quality of materials t prescribed by IS and designing of beams and columns esigning as per IS and use of shear wall and use of base isolation se technique & seismic dampers in structures. Finally keeping in mind Prevention Is Better Than Cure. Prevention