Empirical period - height relationship for shear wall system buildings in India

Abstract

Researchers all over the world are continuously working towards development of latest techniques for improving earthquake safety of tall buildings. The period – height relationships are very essential in determining the seismic demands of the structure. It is revealed that, although the code formulas provide periods of vibration that are generally shorter than measured periods of vibration, these formulas can be improved to provide better correlation with the measured data. Therefore, a relationship is sought that will give precise prediction of period of vibration for structural assessment of Indian reinforced concrete shear wall buildings. Many researchers have attempted to revise these code specified formulae. In this study 19 existing reinforced concrete shear wall buildings in India, with varying length, width and height are considered. The fundamental time periods of all the selected buildings were calculated using finite element method and IS 1893(Part 1) : 2002 based empirical formula. On the basis of fundamental period of vibration of an Indian Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall (RCSW) building, obtained by finite element analysis, new equation has been proposed. The comparison of proposed equation with Indian code shows that finite element analysis yielded 97.64% higher periods as compared to the code approach.