Earthquake Resistant Architecture

Architectural

Considerations

Presented by-
Neha Gupta (19122036)
Neha P (19122037)
Why? Experience in past earthquakes has demonstrated that many

common buildings and typical methods of construction lack

basic resistance to earthquake forces. In most cases this

Why is designing with

resistance can be achieved by following simple, inexpensive

principles of good building construction practice. Adherence

respect to earthquake

to these simple rules will not prevent all damage in moderate

resistance important? or large earthquakes, but life threatening collapses should be

prevented, and damage limited to repairable proportions.

General Principles of Design
Planning and layout of the building involving consideration of the location of rooms and walls,
openings such as doors and windows, the number of storeys, etc. At this stage, site and foundation
aspects should also be considered.

Lay out and general design of the structural framing system with special attention to furnishing lateral
resistance.

Consideration of highly loaded and critical sections with provision of reinforcement as required.

All elements, such as walls and the roof, should be tied together so as to act as an integrated unit
during earthquake shaking, transferring forces across connections and preventing separation.

The building must be well connected to a good foundation and the earth. Wet, soft soils should be
avoided, and the foundation must be well tied together, as well as walls.

Unreinforced earth and masonry have no reliable strength in tension, and are brittle in compression.
Generally, they must be suitably reinforced by steel or wood.
Planning and
length of a block to three times its width. If

design aspects
longer lengths are required two separate blocks
with sufficient separation in between should be
provided.

PLAN Separation of Blocks: Separation of a large

building into several blocks may be required so
Symmetry: The building as a whole or its various as to obtain symmetry and regularity of each
blocks should be kept symmetrical about both block. For preventing hammering or pounding
the axes. Asymmetry leads to torsion during damage between blocks a physical separation of
earthquakes and is dangerous. Symmetry is also 3 to 4 cm throughout the height above the plinth
desirable in the placing and sizing of door and level will be adequate as well as practical for
window openings, as far as possible upto 3 storeyed buildings. The separation
section can be treated just like expansion joint or
Regularity: Simple rectangular shapes, behave it may be filled or covered with a weak material
better in an earthquake than shapes with many which would easily crush and crumble during
projections. Torsional effects of ground motion earthquake shaking. Such separation may be
are pronounced in long narrow rectangular considered in larger buildings since it may not be
blocks. Therefore, it is desirable to restrict the convenient in small buildings.
Simplicity: Ornamentation involving large cornices, vertical or
horizontal cantilever projections, facia stones and the like are
dangerous and undesirable from a seismic viewpoint.
Simplicity is the best approach. Where ornamentation is
insisted upon, it must be reinforced with steel, which should
be properly embedded or tied into the main structure of the
building.

Enclosed Area: A small building enclosure with properly

interconnected walls acts like a rigid box since the
earthquake strength which long walls derive from transverse
walls increases as their length decreases. Therefore
structurally it will be advisable to have separately enclosed
rooms rather than one long room.

Separate Buildings for Different Functions: In view of the

difference in importance of hospitals, schools, assembly
halls, residences, communication and security buildings, etc.,
it may be economical to plan separate blocks for different
functions so as to affect economy in strengthening costs.
CHOICE OF SITE
Stability of Slope: Hillside slopes liable to slide Site selection: A site with sufficient bearing
during an earthquake should be avoided and only capacity and free from the aforementioned
stable slopes should be chosen to locate the defects should be chosen and its drainage
building. Also it will be preferable to have several condition improved so that no water
blocks on terraces than have one large block accumulates and saturates the ground close to
with footings at very different elevations. A site the footing level.
subject to the danger of rock falls has to be
avoided.

Very Loose Sands or Sensitive Clays: These two

types of soils are liable to be destroyed by the
earthquake so much as to lose their original
structure and thereby undergo compaction. This
would result in large unequal settlements and
damage the building. If the loose cohesionless
soils are saturated with water they are apt to
lose their shear resistance altogether during
shaking and become liquefied.
FIRE RESISTANCE

Fire safety: It is not unusual during earthquakes

that due to snapping of electrical fittings short
circuiting takes place, or gas pipes may develop
leaks and catch fire. Fire could also be started
due to kerosene lamps and kitchen fires. The fire
hazard sometimes could even be more serious
than the earthquake damage. The buildings
should therefore preferably be constructed of
fire resistant materials and should have fire
system systems installed.
MISCELLANEOUS

Lightness:Since the earthquake force is a function of mass, the building shall be as light as possible
consistent with structural safety and functional requirements. Roofs and upper storeys of buildings, in
particular, should be designed as light as possible.
Continuity of Construction: As far as possible, the parts of the building should be tied together in such
a manner that the building acts as one unit. For parts of buildings between separation or crumple
sections or expansion joints, floor slabs shall be continuous throughout as far as possible. Concrete
slabs shall be rigidly connected or integrally cast with the support beams. Additions and alterations to
the structures shall be accompanied by the provision of separation or crumple sections between the
new and the existing structures as far as possible, unless positive measures are taken to establish
continuity between the existing and the new construction.
Projecting and Suspended Parts: Projecting parts shall be avoided as far as possible. If the projecting
parts cannot be avoided, they shall be properly reinforced and firmly tied to the main structure, and
their design shall be in accordance with IS 1893 : 1984. Ceiling plaster shall preferably be avoided. When
it is unavoidable, the plaster shall be as thin as possible. Suspended ceiling shall be avoided as far as
possible. Where provided they shall be light, adequately framed and secured.
Strength in Various Directions: The structure shall be designed to have adequate strength against
earthquake effects along both the horizontal axes. The design shall also be safe considering the
reversible nature of earthquake forces.
Ductility: The main structural elements and their connection shall be designed not to have a ductile
failure. This will enable the structure to absorb energy during earthquakes to avoid sudden collapse of
the structure. Providing reinforcing steel in masonry at critical sections, as provided in this standard
will not only increase strength and stability but also ductility.
Damage to Non-structural Parts: Suitable details shall be worked out to connect the non-structural
parts with the structural framing so that the deformation of the structural frame leads to minimum
damage of the non-structural elements.
Irregularities in Building

Configuration
An important feature in building configuration is its regularity and
symmetry in horizontal and vertical plane . The Irregularities in
building configuration system are classified into two types.
Vertical Irregularities- sudden change in strength, stiffness,
geometry and mass results in irregular distribution of forces
over the height.
Horizontal Irregularities – Refers to asymmetric plan shape or
discontinuous in the horizontal resisting elements such as
openings and re-entrant corner and other changes resulting in
torsion.
BUILDING CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS
PLAN STRUCTURAL IRREGULARITIES L SHAPED BUILDING
Seismic behaviour of irregular shaped plans differs from
regular shapes because the first can be subjected to their
asymmetry and/or can present local deformations due to the
presence of re-entrant corners or excessive openings. Both
effects give origin to undesired stress concentrations in some
resisting members of the building.
On the contrary, the ideal rectangular or square plane,
structurally symmetric, with enough in-plane stiffness in its
diaphragm, presents an ideal behaviour. Building shaped like a TORSION OF UNSYMMETRICAL PLANS
box, such as rectangular, both in plan and elevation, is
inherently stronger than one that is L-shaped or U-shaped,
that is a building with wings
VERTICAL IRREGULARITIES

Stiffness Irregularity -Soft Story

Stiffness Irregularity - Extreme Soft Story
Weight (Mass) Irregularity
Vertical Geometry Irregularity
In-plane Discontinuity in Vertical Lateral Force
Resisting Elements
Discontinuity in Capacity -Weak Story

SOFT STORY

Architectural considerations
Taller first story
Unreinforced infill in upper stories
Completely open ground story
Soft Story
Stiffness related
Lateral stiffness of adjacent stories
Soft story examples-
Stilts (open ground storey)
Used as parking lots, garages
Apartments & commercial buildings
Prevalent in many countries like India,
Iran Turkey, etc.
Intermediate open storey
Machinery, recreations, etc

Seismic performance
Under lateral loads
Excessive story deformation
Shear failure of columns
GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND
DESIGN CRITERIA
AS PER IS 1893-1 (2002): Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures, Part 1
BUILDINGS
Regular and Irregular Configuration
1. To perform well in an earthquake, a building should possess four
main attributes
Simple and regular configuration
Adequate lateral strength
Stiffness and ductility
2. Buildings having simple regular geometry and uniformly
distributed mass and stiffness in plan as well as in elevation,
suffer much less damage than buildings with irregular
configurations.
3. A building shall be considered as irregular for the purposes of
this standard, if at least one of the conditions mentioned in the
TORSIONAL IRREGULARITY
previous slides
BUILDINGS WITH
SOFT STOREY
Dynamic analysis of building is carried out including the 1. The columns and beams of the soft storey are to be
strength and stiffness effects of infills and inelastic designed for 2.5 times the storey shears and moments
deformations in the members, particularly, those in the calculated under seismic loads.
soft storey, and the members designed accordingly. 2. Besides the columns designed and detailed for the
calculated storey shears and moments, shear walls placed
symmetrically in both directions of the building as far
Alternatively, the following design criteria are to be away from the centre of the building as feasible; to be
adopted after carrying out the earthquake analysis, designed exclusively for 1.5 times the lateral storey shear
neglecting the effect of infill walls in other storeys- force.
REFERENCES
IS 1893-1 (2002): Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures, Part 1.
IS 4326:1993 Earthquake Resistant Design and Construction of Buildings Code of Practice.
https://sjce.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/EQ3-Architectural-and-Planning-
Aspects.pdf
https://www.nicee.org/iaee/E_Chapter3.pdf
THANK YOU