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Building Drift in ETABS

This document discusses building drift in ETABS software. It defines story drift and story drift ratio, and provides the maximum allowable limits for seismic drift of 0.025x or 0.020x story height depending on the building's seismic period. For wind drift, the limit is given as l/400 to l/600. It describes how to check drift in ETABS by reviewing the summary report for seismic drifts and copying story drift tables to Excel for wind drifts. Excessive drift values may be due to free or disconnected nodes, and the document advises unlocking and modifying the model to remove errors.

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Ali Shan
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126 views6 pages

Building Drift in ETABS

This document discusses building drift in ETABS software. It defines story drift and story drift ratio, and provides the maximum allowable limits for seismic drift of 0.025x or 0.020x story height depending on the building's seismic period. For wind drift, the limit is given as l/400 to l/600. It describes how to check drift in ETABS by reviewing the summary report for seismic drifts and copying story drift tables to Excel for wind drifts. Excessive drift values may be due to free or disconnected nodes, and the document advises unlocking and modifying the model to remove errors.

Uploaded by

Ali Shan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BuildingDriftinETABS

Driftisaverycomplextopicinstructuralengineering.Itinvolvestoomanyfactorstoarrive
atasuitabledecision.Itinvolvesengineeringjudgment,thephenomenonfreshengineers
mightnotfeel.Inthisarticle,Ihavetriedtoexplainwhatisbuildingdrift,allowablelimits,
waysandmeanstocheckinETABSmodelsandtocontroltheexcessivedrift.Pleasekeep
inmind,thisarticleisnotaboutthebuildingdriftasfarasstructuralscienceisconcerned,
ratherthistopicofdriftisrelatedtoETABSsoftware.
Firstofallyoumustbefamiliarwiththetermstorydrift.Forconvenience,Iamquoting
herethedefinitionsfromUBC97code:

STORY DRIFT is the lateral displacement of one level relative


to the level above or below.
STORY DRIFT RATIO is the story drift divided by the story
height.

1)MaximumLimits
Nowwhatforstorydriftlimits?Whatisthemaximumpermissiblevalue?Wellitdepends
uponthetypeofdrift.Isitseismicorwind?
Forseismic,IwillrefertoUBC97codewhichinsection1630.10.2talksaboutdriftlimitsfor
earthquake.

Nowinsimplewords,themaximumlimitforseismicdriftis:
deltaMshallnotexceed0.025xstoryht(ifbuildingseismicperiodislessthan0.7)
deltaMshallnotexceed0.020xstoryht(ifbuildingseismicperiodisequalorgreaterthan
0.7)
ImportanttonotehereisthatittalksaboutSEISMICdriftsoSEISMICbuildingperiodnot
theWINDperiod.

NowdeltaM=Maxinelasticresponsedisplacement=0.7RdeltaS
whereR=fromTable16N
deltaS=displacementfromstatic,elasticanalysis
thisvalueisreadfromETABS.
youmultiplythisvalueby0.7RtogetdeltaM
Thiswasallaboutseismicdrift,butforwinddriftcodeismute.IwillreferyoutoASCE2005
commentaryCC.1.2

Sowecanunderstandthatthelimitforwinddriftisontheorderofl/600tol/400for
commonusage.Thisiscommonthing,however,inrealitythisfigurecanbeupordown
dependingupontheductilityofcladdingmaterialandfinishes.Howeverforcommonusage
valueofl/400isthoughttobewellsatisfactory.Herelmeansstoryht.
Theconceptofdriftlimitsissamethroughoutallthegoverningcodes,andthetypicallimits
ofstoryheightbysomenumberissame,butobviouslyyouhavetotakecareoftheprocess
ofcalculatingthewindforceorseismicforces.Youshouldnotcalculatewindforcefrom
onecodeandapplylimitsofanothercode.

2)LoadCombinations

Oncethedriftlimithasbeendeterminedseparatelyforseismicandwindforces,nowisthe
needtochecktheactualdriftvsthelimit.Determinationofactualdriftdependsontheload
combinationandtheperiodofrecurrence.Ifnotproperlycalculated,thismaydramatically
increaseordecreasetheaccepteddriftvaluesinmodel.
SeismicforceEisalwaysalreadyfactoredsothatsthereasonitsfactorisalways1.0inload
combinationsofACI/ASCEcode.Therecurrenceperiodforseismicforceis50years.In
seismicdriftwedonotconvertitintoserviceseismicforce.Seismicdriftischeckedagainst
thedirectloadcaseofEQx,EQyetcinETABS.
Forwinddrift,weneedtoconvert50yearwindtoservicewindforce.Ithasbeen
recommendedbyASCEcommentaryCC.1.2

Toconvert50yearservicewindforceto10yearservicewindforceitismultipliedby0.7,as
theequationsays,andothergravityloads;Dand0.5Larealsoadded.
SoinanutshellwecreatefollowingloadcombinationsinETABStocheckourdrift:

DRIFTWx1=D+0.5L+0.7Wx
DRIFTWx2=D+0.5L0.7Wx
DRIFTWy1=D+0.5L+0.7Wy
DRIFTWy2=D+0.5L0.7Wy

Forseismicdrift,asdiscussedearlier,wedonotneedanycombination,driftwillbechecked
justonEQxandEQyloadcasesonly.

3)HowtocheckinETABS

Nowwehaveobtainedboththeactualdriftandthedriftlimit,buthowcanwedothisin
ETABSeasily?
Well,aftercreatingthedriftcombinationsasdiscussedinstep2,weneedtodoasbelow:
ForseismicdriftgotoFile>PrintTables>SummaryReport

Selectthefilename

Scrolldowntotheendofthepage,youwillfindoutasectionaboutdrifts,similartothis
one:

Itdisplaysthemaxdriftforeachlateralloadcaseforeachstory.Aswewantthedriftfor
windtobeondriftloadcombinationsandnotonwindloadcases,sowewillnotcompare
thiswinddriftwithoutlimits.Inthistablewearegoingtocheckjustthedriftvaluesofour
ETABSmodelforindividualseismicloadcases;EQxandEQy.
Asyounoticed,thistableshowsusvaluesinfractionformat.Forexample1/105that
becomes0.009523809524.This1/105valueisstorydriftdividedbystoryht.Itmeansdelta
S/storyht.
NowthisvalueisdeltaS.FirstweneedtoconvertittodeltaMbymultiplyingitwith0.7R.
AssumeRhereis3.5so
deltaM=0.7x3.5x1/105=7/300=0.023333whichislessthan0.025sosafe(ifT<0.7).
Soinsteadofcalculatingeverytimeby0.7Rwecanchecktheselimitsinotherway.
Ifourlimitis0.025thenthelimitwegetis0.025/R/0.7.AssumeR=3.5.Nowthevaluesin
ETABSareinversesoourlimitis0.73.5/0.025=98.
InETABSthedriftisreportedas1/xwherexissomenumber.Nowaslongasx(some
number)isgreaterthan98ourlimitof0.025xstoryhtisbeingsatisfied.Thiswayyoucan
quicklycheckandcompareseismicdrifts.

Nowforthewinddrifts,gotoDisplay>Showtables,selectPointdisplacements>Storydrifts
andthenselectonlydriftcombinationsforresults.Clickonandthencopythetableto
EXCEL.

TosavetimeyoucanrightclickonEXCELtaskbarandselectmaximumandminimum.
ThenjustselectthecolumnHorIandseethemaximumvaluethatshouldbelessthan
H/400toH600limit(0.0025t00.00167).AgainthevaluesreportedinETABSaredividedby
storyht.

4)ControllingExcessiveDriftValues

SometimesyoumayfaceproblemofexcessivelylargevaluesindrifttablesinETABS.Well
wearenotgoingtotalkaboutdifferentmeasuresandmodelingtechniquestocontrolthe
driftvalues.Wearegoingtotalkaboutlargenumbersindrifttables.Sometimesithappens
thatapointornodeisfreeinthemodelorisconnectedtoaNULLlineorveryflexible
section.Drifttablesforexamplethestorydrifttableinwindcapturesthemaximum
displacedpoints.Obviouslythedisplacementofseveralmetersintablesisnotwhatweare
lookingfor.Driftvalues(relative)maybestillokayforthesepoints,butitrequiresyouto
checkthedisplacementvaluestoobeforecheckingdirectlythedrift.Unlockthemodeland
removeallfreepoints,checkforanydiscontinuityandmodifyyourmodelstoremoveall
theerrors.

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