Floor response spectra for seismic design of operational and functional components of concrete buildings in Canada

Abstract

It has been observed during previous earthquakes that the damage to operational and functional components of buildings often result in more injuries, fatalities and property damage than those inflicted by structural damage. Operational and functional components of a building include architectural components, mechanical and electrical equipment, as well as building contents. A rational approach to designing these elements against seismic excitations involves the use of floor design spectra. The development of such design spectra for buildings in Canada constitutes the objective of the paper. This objective was achieved by conducting comprehensive analyses of selected reinforced concrete buildings, with different lateral force resisting systems and building heights, under code compatible earthquake records for an eastern and a western Canadian city. It was observed that the floor response was significantly amplified, especially for buildings with short periods. Generally, the higher floors showed higher amplifications with differences in spectra between the floors being more pronounced in low-rise buildings and shear wall buildings with short fundamental periods. The results provided a large volume of data to generate floor response spectra for the design of operational and functional components of buildings in Canada. The details of the approach and the design spectra are presented in the paper.Résumé : Lors de séismes antérieurs, il a été observé que les dommages aux composantes opérationnelles et fonctionnelles des bâtiments résultent souvent en plus de blessures, de décès et de dommages à la propriété que ceux causés par les dommages structuraux. Les composantes opérationnelles et fonctionnelles d'un bâtiment comprennent les composantes architecturales, les équipements mécaniques et électriques ainsi que le contenu des bâtiments. Une approche rationnelle pour la conception de ces éléments pour résister aux séismes implique l'utilisation de spectres de réponse au niveau du plancher. L'objectif de cet article est le développement de tels spectres de conception pour les bâtiments du Canada. Cet objectif a été atteint en réalisant des analyses complètes de bâtiments en béton armé sélectionnés comportant différents systèmes de renfort contre les forces latérales et différentes hauteurs de bâtiments, selon les enregistrements sismiques compatibles aux codes pour une ville canadienne de l'Est et une de l'Ouest. Il a été remarqué que la réponse au niveau du plancher était grandement amplifiée, particulièrement pour les bâtiments à courtes périodes. Règle générale, les planchers plus hauts dans la structure ont montré de plus grandes amplifications et les différences entre les spectres étaient plus prononcées entre les planchers dans les bâtiments de faible hauteur et dans les bâtiments comportant des murs de contreventement à courtes périodes fondamentales. Les résultats ont engendré un grand nombre de données afin de générer les spectres de ré-ponse au niveau des planchers pour la conception des composantes opérationn...

A method for the direct estimation of floor acceleration spectra for elastic and inelastic MDOF structures

“…They are based on empirical variation of peak floor accelerations (PFAs) throughout the height of a building. Several authors have questioned the suitability of the code formulae and proposed various improvements to them, for example, [4][5][6] for Eurocode 8, [7][8][9][10] for ASCE 7-10 and its predecessors, and [11] for the National Building Code of Canada (NBC 2005) [12]. A simple method that is similar to the code procedures was also proposed by Villaverde [13].…”

Utilizing Artificial Neural Networks and Random Forests to Forecast the Dynamic Amplification Factors of Non-Structural Components

“…Figures 7 and 8 display the relationship between the vibration period of a nonstructural component (T s in seconds) and the peak spectral acceleration (S a in g) of the floor. When the FRS is plotted throughout a wide variety of periods, maximum spectrum peaks should appear at the fundamental natural period of the supporting structure [73]. FRS peaks align with the typical periods of relevant building models.…”

Investigation on floor response spectra of a three-story building exposed to near- and far-field earthquakes

“…The average spectral acceleration (𝑆 𝑎 , measured in g units) of a non-structural component (NSC) connected to a specific floor is graphed in relation to the vibration period (𝑇 𝑠 , measured in seconds) for the building model depicted in Figure 4. When the FRS are plotted across an extensive variety of periods, it is predicted that the largest peaks in the spectrum would line up with the fundamental period of the main structure [40]. These observed peaks in the FRS correspond to the modal periods of the building model under consideration.…”