IJCSIET--International Journal of Computer Science inf ormation and Engg.

, Technologies ISSN 2277-4408 || 01102015-014

SEISMIC ANALYSIS OF MULTISTOREY

BUILDING WITH FLOATING COLUMN
SRAVAN KUMAR P,ROLL NO:137K1D8719
M-TECH STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
DJR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING &TECHNOLOGY
UNDER THE GUIDENCE OF
E.V.PRASAD(PH.D)

ABSTRACT adopted to accommodate parking or reception lobbies in the

first storey. Whereas the total seismic base shear as

In present scenario buildings with floating column is a typical

feature in the modern multistory construction in urban India.

experienced by a building during an earthquake is dependent
Such features are highly undesirable in building built in
on its natural period, the seismic force distribution is dependent
seismically active areas. This study highlights the importance
on the distribution of stiffness and mass along the height.
of explicitly recognizing the presence of the floating column in
The behavior of a building during earthquakes depends
the analysis of building. Alternate measures, involving stiffness
critically on its overall shape, size and geometry, in addition to
balance of the first storey and the storey above, are proposed to
how the earthquake forces are carried to the ground. The
reduce the irregularity introduced by the floating columns.
earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a

FEM codes are developed for 2D multi storey frames with and building need to be brought down along the height to the

without floating column to study the responses of the structure ground by the shortest path; any deviation or discontinuity in

under different earthquake excitation having different this load transfer path results in poor performance of the

frequency content keeping the PGA and time duration factor building. Buildings with vertical setbacks (like the hotel

constant. The time history of floor displacement, inter storey buildings with a few storey wider than the rest) cause a sudden

drift, base shear, overturning moment are computed for both jump in earthquake forces at the level of discontinuity.

the frames with and without floating column. Buildings that have fewer columns or walls in a particular

1.INTRODUCTION storey or with unusually tall storey tend to damage or collapse

which is initiated in that storey. M any buildings with an open

Introduction
ground storey intended for parking collapsed or were severely

M any urban multistorey buildings in India today have open damaged in Gujarat during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.

first storey as an unavoidable feature. This is primarily being Buildings with columns that hang or float on beams at an

intermediate storey and do not go all the way to the foundation,

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have discontinuities in the load transfer path. Looking ahead, of course, one will continue to make buildings

What is floating column interesting rather than monotonous. However, this need not be

done at the cost of poor behavior and earthquake safety of

A column is supposed to be a vertical member starting from
buildings. Architectural features that are detrimental to
foundation level and transferring the load to the ground. The
earthquake response of buildings should be avoided. If not,
term floating column is also a vertical element which (due to
they must be minimized. When irregular features are included
architectural design/ site situation) at its lower level
in buildings, a considerably higher level of engineering effort is
(termination Level) rests on a beam which is a horizontal
required in the structural design and yet the building may not
member. The beams in turn transfer the load to other columns
be as good as one with simple architectural features.
below it.
Hence, the structures already made with these kinds of

discontinuous members are endangered in seismic regions. But

those structures cannot be demolished, rather study can be done

to strengthen the structure or some remedial features can be

suggested. The columns of the first storey can be made

stronger, the stiffness of these columns can be increased by

retrofitting or these may be provided with bracing to decrease

the lateral deformation.

Some pictures showing the buildings built with floating

columns:
There are many projects in which floating columns are

adopted, especially above the ground floor, where transfer

girders are employed, so that more open space is available in

the ground floor. These open spaces may be required for

assembly hall or parking purpose. The transfer girders have to

be designed and detailed properly, especially in earth quake

zones. The column is a concentrated load on the beam which

supports it. As far as analysis is concerned, the column is often

assumed pinned at the base and is therefore taken as a point

load on the transfer beam. STAAD Pro, ETABS and SAP2000

can be used to do the analysis of this type of structure. Floating

columns are competent enough to carry gravity loading but

transfer girder must be of adequate dimensions (Stiffness) with

very minimal deflection.

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2.REVIEW OF LITERATURES

240 Park Avenue South in New York, United States Current literature survey includes earthquake response of multi

storey building frames with usual columns. Some of the

Objective and scope of present work
literatures emphasized on strengthening of the existing

The objective of the present work is to study the behavior of buildings in seismic prone regions.

multistory buildings with floating columns under earthquake

Maison and Neuss [15], (1984), M embers of ASCE have
excitations.
preformed the computer analysis of an existing forty four story
Finite element method is used to solve the dynamic governing
steel frame high-rise Building to study the influence of various
equation. Linear time history analysis is carried out for the
modeling aspects on the predicted dynamic properties and
multistory buildings under different earthquake loading of
computed seismic response behaviours. The predicted dynamic
varying frequency content. The base of the building frame is
properties are compared to the building's true properties as
assumed to be fixed. Newmarks direct integration scheme is
previously determined from experimental testing. The seismic
used to advance the solution in time.
response behaviours are computed using the response spectrum
Organization
(Newmark and ATC spectra) and equivalent static load

methods.
Presentation of the research effort is organized as follows:

Also, Maison and Ventura [16], (1991), M embers of ASCE

Chapter 2 presents the literature survey on seismic
computed dynamic properties and response behaviours OF
analysis of multi storey frame structures.
THIRTEEN-STORY BUILDING and this result are compared
Chapter 3 presents some theory and formulations
to the true values as determined from the recorded motions in
used for developing the FEM program.
the building during two actual earthquakes and shown that
Chapter 4 presents the validation of the FEM
state-of-practice design type analytical models can predict the
program developed and prediction of response of
actual dynamic properties.
structure under different earthquake response.
Arlekar, Jain & Murty [2], (1997) said that such features
Chapter 5 concludes the present work. An account of
were highly undesirable in buildings built in seismically active
possible scope of extension to the present study has
areas; this has been verified in numerous experiences of strong
been appended to the concluding remarks.
shaking during the past earthquakes. They highlighted the
Some important publication and books referred
importance of explicitly recognizing the
during the present investigation have been listed in

the references.
presence of the open first storey in the analysis of the building,

involving stiffness balance of the open first storey and the

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storey above, were proposed to reduce the irregularity angle of measured counterclockwise from the cos and S=
sin.
introduced by the open first storey.

3.FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION

The finite element method (FEM ), which is sometimes also

It is clear that the plane frame element has
referred as finite element analysis (FEA), is a computational
six degree of freedom three at each node
technique which is used to obtain the solutions of various
(two displacements and a rotation). The
boundary value problems in engineering, approximately.
sign convention used is that displacements
Boundary value problems are sometimes also referred to as
are positive if they point upwards and
field value problems. It can be said to be a mathematical
rotations are positive if they are
problem wherein one or more dependent variables must satisfy
counterclockwise. Consequently for a
a differential equation everywhere within the domain of
structure with n nodes, the global stiffness
independent variables and also satisfy certain specific
matrix K will be 3n X 3n (since we have
conditions at the boundary of those domains. The field value
three degrees of freedom at each node).
problems in FEM generally has field as a domain of interest
The global stiffness matrix K is assembled
which often represent a physical structure. The field variables
by making calls to the M ATLAB function
are thus governed by differential equations and the boundary
PlaneFrameAssemble which is written
values refer to the specified value of the field variables on the
specially for this purpose.
boundaries of the field. The field variables might include heat

flux, temperature, physical displacement, and fluid velocity

depending upon the type of physical problem which is being

4.RES ULT AND DIS CUSS ION
analyzed.

The behavior of building frame with and without floating

3.1 S tatic analysis column is studied under static load, free vibration and forced

vibration condition. The finite element code has been

3.1.1 Plane frame element
developed in M ATLAB platform.

The plane frame element is a two-dimensional finite element

with both local and global coordinates. The plane frame

S tatic analysis
element has modulus of elasticity E, moment of inertia I, cross-

sectional area A, and length L. Each plane frame element has

A four storey two bay 2d frame with and without floating
two nodes and is inclined with an
column are analyzed for static loading using the present FEM

code and the commercial software STAAD Pro.

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Free vibration analysis

Example 4.1

In this example a two storey one bay 2D frame is taken. Fig.4.3

The following are the input data of the test specimen:
shows the sketchmatic view of the 2D frame. The results

Size of beam 0.1 X 0.15 m obtained are compared with M aurice Petyt[21]. The input data

are as follows:
Size of column 0.1 X 0.125 m

Span of bay = 0.4572 m

Span of each bay 3.0 m

Storey height = 0.2286 m

Storey height 3.0 m

M odulus of Elasticity, E = 206.84 X 106 kN/m2 Size of beam = (0.0127 x 0.003175) m

Support condition Fixed

Size of column = (0.0127 x 0.003175) m

Loading type Live (3.0 kN at 3rd floor and 2 kN at 4th floor)

M odulus of elasticity, E = 206.84 x106 kN/m2

Fig. 4.1 and Fig.4.2 show the sketchmatic view of the two
Density, 3Kg/m=3 7.83 x 10
frame without and with floating column respectively. From

Table 4.1 and 4.2, we can observe that the nodal displacement

values obtained from present FEM in case of frame with

floating column are more than the corresponding nodal

displacement values of the frame without floating column.

Table 4.3 and 4.4 show the nodal displacement value obtained

from STAAD Pro of the frame without and with floating

column respectively and the result are very comparable with

the result obtained in present FEM .

2D Frame with usual column 2D Frame with Floating

column
Fig. Geometry of the 2 dimensional framework. Dimensions
are in meter

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Table 4.2 Global deflection at each node

able 4.1 Global deflection at each node for general frame obtained

for general frame obtained in S TAAD Pro.

in present FEM

Horizontal Verti cal Rotati onal Hori zo ntal Verti cal Rotati onal
Node
X mm Y mm rZ ra d Node
X mm Y mm rZ ra d
1 0 0 0
1 0 0 0
2 0 0 0

3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

4 1.6 0 0
3 0 0 0
5 1.6 0 0
4 1.4 0 0
6 1.6 0 0

7 3.8 0 0 5 1.4 0 0

8 3.8 0 0 6 1.4 0 0

9 3.8 0 0
7 3.6 0 0
10 5.8 0 0
8 3.6 0 0
11 5.8 0 0

12 5.8 0 0 9 3.6 0 0

13 6.7 0 0 10 5.6 0 0

14 6.7 0 0
11 5.6 0 0
15 6.7 0 0
12 5.6 0 0

13 6.8 0 0

14 6.8 0 0

15 6.8 0 0

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Forced vibration analysis

Example 4.3

For the forced vibration analysis, a two bay four storey 2D

steel frame is considered. The frame is subjected to ground

motion, the compatible time history of acceleration as per

spectra of IS 1893 (part 1): 2002.

The dimension and material properties of the frame is as

follows:

Youngs modulus. E= 206.84 x 106 kN/m2

Density, 3Kg/m=3 7.83 x10 Fig. 4.7

Size of beam = (0.1 x 0.15) m

Size of column = (0.1 x 0.125) m

Fig:Displacement vs time response of the 2D steel frame with

floating column obtained in present FEM

CONCLUS ION

The behavior of multistory building with and without

floating column is studied under different earthquake

excitation. The compatible time history and Elcentro

earthquake data has been considered. The PGA of both the

earthquake has been scaled to 0.2g and duration of

excitation are kept same. A finite element model has been

developed to study the dynamic behavior of multi story

Fig. Compatible time history as per spectra of IS 1893
(part 1): 2002 frame. The static and free vibration results obtained using

present finite element code are validated. The dynamic

Free vibration frequencies of the 2D steel frame with
analysis of frame is studied by varying the column
floating column are presented in Table 4.6. In this table
dimension. It is concluded that with increase in ground
the values obtained in present FEM and STAAD Pro are
floor column the maximum displacement, inter storey drift
compared. Table 4.7 shows the comparison of maximum
values are reducing. The base shear and overturning
top floor displacement of the frame obtained in present
moment vary with the change in column dimension.
FEM and STAAD Pro which are in very close agreement.

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REFERENCES

1. Agarwal Pankaj, Shrikhande Manish (2009),

Earthquake resistant design of structures, PHI

learning private limited, New Delhi.

2. Arlekar Jaswant N, Jain S udhir K. and Murty

C.V.R, (1997), Seismic Response of RC Frame

Buildings with Soft First Storeys. Proceedings of the

CBRI Golden Jubilee Conference on Natural Hazards

in Urban Habitat, 1997, New Delhi.

3. Awkar J. C. and Lui E.M, Seismic analysis and

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425-442, 1997.

4. Balsamoa A, Colombo A, Manfredi G, Negro P &

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frame repaired using CFRP laminates. Engineering

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5. Bardakis V.G., Dritsos S .E. (2007), Evaluating

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buildings .Soil Dynamics and Earthquake

Engineering 27 (2007) 223233.

6. Brodericka B.M., Elghazouli A.Y. and Goggins J,

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7. Chopra, Anil k. (1995), Dynamics of structures,

Prentice Hall.

8. Daryl L. Logan (2007), A First Course in the Finite

Element M ethod, Thomson, USA
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