Abstract Database

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SEISMIC PERFORMANCE BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL RC BUILDING AND RC BUILDING WITH LIGHT WEIGHT COMPONENTS IN BANGLADESH

MEE16712
Md. Arifujjaman
Supervisor: Yoshiaki NAKANO
Country: Bangladesh
Abstract

This thesis focuses on the seismic capacity of the light weight RC structure and the effects of the light weight components on the seismic behavior of RC structures. Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI) is working to develop light weight alternative building components to reduce the construction cost and seismic risk of structures. This thesis will represent a comparative study of seismic performance between a conventional RC building and a RC building with light weight components. HBRI has constructed a 5-storied residential building using light weight thermal block walls and Ferrocement (FC) floor channels. It is proved to be a low cost structure but don’t have a clear idea regarding the structural performance subject to lateral loads. To know the performance of this structure, non-linear pushover analysis is done. This analysis procedure is described in ATC-40/FEMA 273/356. In the non-linear frame analysis, infill is considered by using an equivalent diagonal strut method. The equivalent strut width is evaluated by using the formula which is proposed by Paulay and Preisetley in 1992. And a Ferrocement(FC) floor channel is considered just as a simple rest on the beam.

A calibration of the non-linear frame analysis is performed by using the experimental data of RC frame specimens with and without infill which were tested at HBRI, Bangladesh. The model building analysis is divided into three cases. In case-1, first, the model building is designed considering the conventional elements and loads. Second, dead load is reduced by using the light weight components, keeping the structural design the same. In case-2, the structural design of the light weight building is revised considering the reduction of building weight. And in Case-3, the same procedure as that in case-1 is repeated for the conventional and light weight buildings without taking a soft ground story into consideration. Non-linear Pushover analysis is carried out for those structures and their performances are compared. Finally, the seismic performance of the light weight structure is found better than the conventional structure.

 

Keywords: Ferrocement channel, Thermal block, Equivalent strut.