THESIS ON

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF

RC FRAMED BUILDING WITH
CONSIDERATION FOR SOFT STORY
EFFECT
BINAYA SHAHI

ROLL NO. : 06

MSEQ, 2074

THAPATHALI CAMPUS
 WHAT IS A SOFT STORY BUILDING

• In city areas, the ground story of the

building is used for parking or for shops.
• In these types of buildings, ground story
does not have the partition walls but
the upper stories are built with brick
masonry partition walls.
• This causes the ground floor to be
significantly less stiff than the upper
stories.
An example of soft-story building
CONTINUED…

• Because of this the displacement in the ground

story is a lot larger than the displacements in
the upper stories during earthquake.
• This causes these types of buildings to collapse
on the ground story during earthquake.
• These open stories which have less stiffness
than the other stories are called soft stories.
And this phenomenon is called soft story
effect.

Soft-story failure mechanism

OBJECTIVE

Objective of this Thesis is to:

• Find out the the causes of structural failure of soft story buildings under earthquake
force and
• Investigate the reliable methods of designing the soft-story building
METHODOLOGY

• First, a building that satisfies the criteria of soft story is selected.

• Finite Element Model of the building is prepared in FEM based Structural Analysis
software, without considering the stiffness provided by the infill walls. Then the structural
analysis of building is done to find out the internal forces in the structural members for
this model. This approach of structural analysis ignores the fact that the building has a soft
story.
• Same process is repeated considering the stiffness of infill walls. This approach of
structural analysis considers the fact that the building has a soft story.
CONTINUED…

• The difference in the internal forces in the structural members of the building obtained
from both analyses is compared to find out the effect of soft story.
• The structural members of the building are designed for both the analyses and compared
with each other.
BUILDING DESCRIPTION

• This is a typical building built in the cities

of Nepal.
• It is a reinforced concrete framed
structure with masonry walls for
partition.
• Typical buildings built in cities are
multipurpose with the shutters and
increased story height in the ground
floor for shops or vehicle parking space.
CONTINUED…

• The upper floors are usually used for residential purpose with the infill brick masonry
walls for partition.
• The absence of the infill walls in ground floor with increased story height makes it a soft
story.
• It is a five-story building with story height of 15ft in the ground floor and 10ft in the
upper floors.
CONTINUED…

Some important features of the building

Type according to usage Commercial/Residential

Type according to structural system RCC Frame structure with brick masonry infill
walls

No. of stories 5

Building height 59’ 9”

First story height 15’

Height of upper stories 10’

Floor area (ground floor) 1776 sq. ft.

Floor area (2nd, 3rd, 4th) 1863 sq. ft

Floor area (5th floor) 145 sq. ft.
FLOOR PLANS

Ground Floor Plan First/Second/Third Floor Plan Fourth Floor Plan

MODELLING, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

• This building is designated as Building 1. For building 1, 3 models have been developed:
• Model 1: In this model, contribution of the masonry partition walls to stiffness of the building has been neglected and
Response Spectrum Analysis has been performed on the model.
• Model 2: In this model, masonry partition walls have been modelled as compression only diagonal struts and Response
Spectrum Analysis has been performed on the model according to clause 7.10.2 of IS 1893:2002.This is one of the methods
recommended in IS 1893:2002 for the design of soft story building.
• Model 3: In this model, contribution of the masonry partition walls to stiffness of the building has been neglected and
Equivalent Lateral Force Analysis has been performed on the model with base shear multiplied by 2.5 in accordance with clause
7.10.2 of IS 1893:2002. It is another method recommended in IS 1893:2002 for the design of soft story building.
• Materials used:
Concrete Grade: M 20
Steel Grade: Fe 500
 CALCULATION OF WIDTH OF DIAGONAL STRUT

fb compression strength of = 3.5 Mpa IS 1905:1987

brick in Mpa
mortar type 1C:4S IS 1905:1987
fmo compression strength of mortar = 6. Mpa
in Mpa
fm compression strength of = 0.433*fb0.64*fmo0.36 = 1.84 Mpa IS 1893:2016
masonry in Mpa
Em modulus of elasticity of URM = 550*fm = 1,012.019 Mpa IS 1893:2016
infill wall
Fck Characteristic strength of Frame = 20. Mpa
material
Ef modulus of elasticity of frame = 5000*(Fck)^(1/2) = 22,360.68 Mpa IS 456:2000
material
b breadth of column m
d depth of column m
Ic Moment of inertia of adjoining = b*(d^3)/12 m4
column
h clear height of URM infill wall m
l clear length of URM infill wall m
Lds Diagonal length of the URM infill = (l2+h2)^(1/2) m
wall
t thickness of URM infill wall m
θ angle of the diagonal strut with degree
horizontal
αh = h*[{Em*t*sin(2θ)}/{4*Ef*Ic*h}]^(1/4) IS 1893:2016
wds width of equivalent diagonal strut = 0.17*αh -0.4*L
ds m IS 1893:2016
CONTINUED

• As the width of diagonal struts for the walls do not vary significantly the maximum width
among all diagonal struts is applied to all diagonal struts for easy of modeling.
• Strut width of 0.6m was used for 9 inch walls and strut width of 0.651m was used for 4
inch walls.
CHECK FOR SOFT STORY CRITERIA

• A story in defined as a soft story if it satisfies one of the two criteria given below

1) Ki < 0.8 ∗ (σ𝑖+3

𝑛=𝑖+1 𝐾𝑛)/3

2) Ki < 0.7*Ki+1
 CONTINUED…

Story Stiffness of the Model 2 in X-direction

Story Load Case Shear X Drift X Stiffness X Shear Y Drift Y Stiffness Y

kN mm kN/m kN mm kN/m

Story5 Eq 1 50.9892 1.3 38350.595 0.0063 0.3 0

Story4 Eq 1 303.6259 1.4 222091.089 0.025 0.04255 0

Story3 Eq 1 534.6761 2.1 255745.456 0.0481 0.1 0

Story2 Eq 1 655.2842 3.1 211910.737 0.0636 0.1 0

Story1 Eq 1 700.0237 7.1 98914.358 0.0617 0.4 0

K1 = 98914.358

0.8 ∗ (σ4𝑖=2 𝐾𝑖) /3 = 183932.609 > K1

0.7*K2 = 148337.516 > K1

It satisfies both criteria. So, the story qualifies as soft story in x-

direction.
CONTINUED…

• Similarly, check for soft story was also done in y direction.

• It satisfies both criteria. So, the story qualifies as soft story also in y-direction.
 MODAL PARTICIPATION MASS RATIO AND SCALE
FACTOR
• Considering 12 number of modes in analysis gives the Cumulative Modal Participation Mass
Ratio in X and Y direction as 0.9982 and 0.9983 respectively at 12th mode which is greater
than 0.9. So the number of modes considered was found to be is sufficient.
(IS 1893 (Part 1) : 2002, Clause 7.8.4.2)

• Scale factors has been set such that base shear from Response Spectrum Analysis is equals to
that from Equivalent Lateral Force Analysis.
[IS 1893 (Part 1) : 2002, Clause 7.8.2]

For example:
For model 2,
Scale factor in y-direction = I*g/(2*R)*EQ/RS = 1,058.32
DESIGN RESULTS

Comparison of Reinforcement in Columns of Story 1 in Model 1 and 2

Design Section Label As for Model 1 As for Model 2 % increase in reinforcement

mm² mm²
col 16"x16" C1 3,706.00 4,872.00 31.46
col 16"x16" C10 3,525.00 4,651.00 31.94

col 16"x16" C11 4,282.00 5,280.00 23.31

col 16"x16" C13 4,739.00 5,512.00 16.31
col 16"x16" C15 3,994.00 5,076.00 27.09
col 16"x16" C17 3,767.00 5,015.00 33.13
col 16"x16" C18 3,724.00 5,113.00 37.30
col 16"x16" C19 4,418.00 5,191.00 17.50
col 16"x16" C2 3,827.00 4,978.00 30.08
col 16"x16" C20 4,699.00 5,145.00 9.49
col 16"x16" C3 3,762.00 4,914.00 30.62
col 16"x16" C4 3,979.00 5,181.00 30.21
col 16"x16" C5 3,382.00 3,920.00 15.91
col 16"x16" C6 3,570.00 4,315.00 20.87
col 16"x16" C7 3,596.00 4,332.00 20.47
col 16"x16" C8 3,525.00 4,355.00 23.55
col 16"x16" C9 3,417.00 4,442.00 30.00
∑As= ∑As= Average=
65,912.00 82,292.00 25.25
CONTINUED…

• The percentage increase in longitudinal Comparison of Reinforcement in Columns of

Story 1 in Model 1 and 2
reinforcement ranges from 6,000.00

Longitudinal Reinforcement in mm2

approximately 9 to 37. 5,000.00

4,000.00
• Percentage Increase in sum of area of
3,000.00

reinforcement in all columns of story 1 2,000.00

in model 2 as compared to model 1 has 1,000.00

been found to be 24.85. 0.00

C1 C10 C11 C13 C15 C17 C18 C19 C2 C20 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
Column designation

As for frame without strut mm² As for frame with strut mm²
 COMPARISON OF REINFORCEMENT IN COLUMNS OF
STORY-1 IN "MODEL 2" AND "MODEL 3"

Comparison of Reinforcement in Columns of Story-1 in "Model 2" and "Model 3"

Design Section Label As % Increase in
For Model 3 For Model 2 Reinforcement
mm²
c18x18 C1 3,589.00 4,872.00 35.75
c18x18 C10 3,560.00 4,651.00 30.65
c18x18 C11 4,387.00 5,280.00 20.36
c18x18 C13 4,683.00 5,512.00 17.70
c18x18 C15 3,759.00 5,076.00 35.04
c18x18 C17 3,788.00 5,015.00 32.39
c18x18 C18 3,686.00 5,113.00 38.71
c18x18 C19 4,259.00 5,191.00 21.88
c18x18 C2 3,577.00 4,978.00 39.17
c18x18 C20 4,590.00 5,145.00 12.09
c18x18 C3 3,672.00 4,914.00 33.82
c18x18 C4 3,700.00 5,181.00 40.03
c18x18 C5 3,588.00 3,920.00 9.25
c18x18 C6 3,321.00 4,315.00 29.93
c18x18 C7 3,411.00 4,332.00 27.00
c18x18 C8 3,620.00 4,355.00 20.30
c18x18 C9 3,589.00 4,442.00 23.77
∑As= ∑As= Average=
64,779.00 82,292.00 27.52
CONTINUED…

• The percentage increase in longitudinal reinforcement Comparison of Reinforcement in Columns of

ranges from approximately 9 to 40. Story-1 in "Model 2" and "Model 3"
6,000.00

• Percentage increase in sum of the area of reinforcement in 5,000.00

columns of story-1 for Model 2 compared to Equivalent

4,000.00
Model 3 is approximately 27.
3,000.00
• This also means that the cost of reinforcement in columns
of story-1 obtained from Model3 is going to be 2,000.00
approximately 27% higher than that obtained from Model.
1,000.00
• However, the results from model 2 will be more realistic
than the ones obtained from model 3. 0.00
C1 C10 C11 C13 C15 C17 C18 C19 C2 C20 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9

As From ELF Analysis using 2.5VB As From Response Spectrum Analysis mm²