Seismic analysis and design of a high rise building

Abstract

The main reason to use seismic codes today in designing buildings, is to provide these buildings with the capability of withstanding earthquakes and ground motions without collapsing, giving enough time to people to evacuate and be safe. Current code regulations essential goal is the insurance of public safety, especially for large buildings, hospitals, nuclear plants and many other shelters, whose demolition can cause major disasters. In order to achieve this, many researchers worked on studies to provide structural systems and materials capable of assuring safety of people in case of earthquakes and other extreme events. A structure behaves in a ductile manner in case it is capable of withstanding large inelastic deformations without significant degradation in strength, and without the development of instability. In Lebanon, building code regulations are embodied in the Uniform Building Code (UBC). The main reason of using the UBC seismic design is to help buildings resist minor and major earthquakes in order to give people time to escape and therefore save their lives. But these codes cannot guarantee even the new designed buildings not to collapse if they are subjected to major earthquakes and aftershocks. Moreover, Lebanon is located between 3 tectonic plates. Several dependable historical measured records show that Lebanon is a country of moderate to high seismic hazard since severe earthquakes with high magnitudes have destroyed its capital several times in history. As a result, the "Order of Engineers in Lebanon" changed the zone of Lebanon from 2B (0.2g) to 2C (0.25g). All computations and methods used in the achievement of this project are shown clearly throughout this report, allowing the reader a full understanding of all the design techniques. This report includes detailed analysis and design of characteristic components of a reinforced concrete High Rise Building: Slabs, Shear Walls, basement wall and 3 levels of foundations. The structure was modeled adopting references to extract all the calculations and procedures of the design and the analysis of the Building using; Etabs, AutoCAD 2015, SAFE, Microsoft Excel 2010 and Microsoft Word were the programs used in order to compute and draw the bending moments, shear and axial loads. Shear walls, slabs and foundations are designed according to the standards of the American Concrete Institute ACI 318-14 and UBC 1997.