SEISMIC ANALYSIS OF SOFT STOREYS STRENGTHENED USING EQUIVALENT DIAGONAL STRUTS

STRUCTURE

Earthquake in different parts of the world demonstrated the hazardous consequences and vulnerability of inadequate structures. Soft storey is a storey in which the stiffness is less than 70% of the storey above or less than 80% of the combined stiffness of the storey's above. In a multi-storied building, soft storey is adopted to accommodate parking which is an unavoidable feature. With the advancement in field of high rise construction, various types of frame arrangements have been emerged. Le Corbuiser popularly known as LC was one of the pioneers of, what is now called five points of modern architecture. Hence, he deviced the concept of soft storey, in which stiffness is altered, along with storey height to achieve an asthetic view. The present study is an attempt to analyse soft storeys strengthened using equivalent diagonal struts. The equivalent diagonal struts method was proposed by Stafford Smith and Hendry, in which the concept of equivalent width was formulated mathematically. The total cases studied are 14 (7 with struts and 7 without struts). Seismic zone II is considered in the analysis. Results are analysed in terms of bending moments, shear forces, nodal displacements and storey displacements. Graphical outputs are also generated.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.