CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

GROUP 7
CONCEPTUAL
DESIGN

• While conceiving a new construction project, an

architect or designer should give thorough thought to
the form, shape, and material of the structure, as well
as the functional and cost requirements, to avoid a
critical failure during earthquake.
• The architect should interact with the structural
engineer to conceive most appropriate and seismically
safe structure.
• The behavior of a structure during an earthquake
depends largely on the form of the superstructure and
on how the earthquake forces are carried to ground.
FUNCTIONAL
PLANNING
FUNCTIONAL PLANNING
• Prerequisite of any type of building
• A planning imparts good environment or living,
working and recreation
• Affects the way in which it can accommodate its
structural skeleton
• One of the main objectives in preliminary planning
is to establish the optimum locations for service
cores and for stiff structural elements that should
be continuous to the foundation
 FRAMING SYSTEM
(The principal categories of building from the point of view of a lateral
loading system are given)
FRAMING SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Bearing- - Walls are load-bearing walls

wall system - Some may be shear walls
- Designed for gravity and lateral loads
- Walls act like cantilevers
Moment- - Beams, columns, and joints resist earthquake forces, primarily by
resisting flexure
frames - When subjected to lateral forces, exhibit zero moments at mid-height of
the columns, shear distribution proportional to the moments of inertia
of the columns, and relative displacements (or inter-story drifts)
proportional to the shear forces
- Referred as shear systems
- Limited to thirty-storeys due to a limitation on the drift.
Dual - Moment-resisting frames either braced or with shear walls.
systems
Tube - Fully three-dimensional system that utilizes the entire building
systems perimeter to resist lateral loads
- For taller buildings, framed-tube, trussed-tube, tube-in-tube, and
bundled-tube systems are used
CONTINUOUS LOAD PATH
• One of the most fundamental
considerations in earthquake-resistant
design is a continuous load path.
• At least one (preferably more)
continuous load path with adequate
strength and stiffness should be provided
from the origin of initial load
manifestation to the final lateral load
resisting elements.
• It has been observed that proper
selection of the load-carrying system is
essential to good performance under any
loading.
LOAD CARRYING SYSTEMS
SIGNIFICANCE
• A properly selected structural system tends to be relatively forgiving of
oversights in analysis, proportion, detail, and construction.
• Buildings are generally composed of horizontal and vertical structural
elements.
• The horizontal elements are usually diaphragms, such as floor slab, and
horizontal bracing in special floors; and the vertical elements are the shear
walls, braced frame, and moment-resisting frames.
HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL
ELEMENTS
• Horizontal forces produced by seismic motion are directly proportional to the
masses of building elements and are considered to act at the centers of the
mass of these elements.
• The earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a building are
brought down along the height to the ground through the shortest path.
• The general path for load transfer, in a conceptual sense, is opposite to the
direction in which seismic loads are delivered to the structural elements.
LOAD TRANSFER PROCESS
• Inertia forces generated in an element,
such as a segment of exterior curtain
wall, are delivered through structural
connections to a horizontal diaphragm.

• The diaphragm distributes these forces

to vertical components.

• Finally, the vertical elements transfer the

forces into the foundations and
eventually to the ground.
IMPORTANCE OF LOAD-TRANSFER
PATH CONTINUITY
• A deviation or discontinuity in this load-transfer path results in poor
performance of the building.
• Failure to provide adequate strength and toughness of individual elements in
the system or failure to tie individual elements together can result in distress or
complete collapse of the system.
• One of the earliest lessons from earthquakes was the realization that structural
and non-structural elements must be adequately tied to the structural system.
DESIGN OBJECTIVE

• However well the structure may have been designed, it

is said to be acceptable only if it meets all the
established configuration-related requirements from
the observed failures during past earthquakes.

• Buildings having simple, regular, and compact layouts,

incorporating a continuous and redundant lateral
force-resisting system, tend to perform well during
earthquakes and, thus, are desirable.
PRINCIPLES OF CONFIGURATION
DESIGN
• Be simple and symmetrical
• Avoid excessive elongation in plan or elevation, i.E., The size should be moderate
• Have uniform and continuous distribution of strength, mass, and stiffness
• Have horizontal members which form hinges before the vertical members
• Have sufficient ductility`
• Have stiffness related to the sub-soil properties
SIMPLICITY AND
SYMMETRY
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY
• A SIMPLE SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE, SUCH AS
SQUARE OR CIRCULAR SHAPES
• BUILDINGS REGULAR IN PLAN AND ELEVATION
• WITHOUT RE ENTRANT CORNERS OR
DISCONTINUITIES.
• IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE PLAN OF A STRUCTURE IS
SYMMETRICAL IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY

a. THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE OVERALL

EARTHQUAKEBEHAVIOR OF A STRUCTURE IS
MARKEDLY GREATER FOR A SIMPLE ONE THAN IT IS
FOR A COMPLEX ONE.
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY

b. THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND

STRUCTURAL DETAILS IS CONSIDERABLY
GREATER FOR A SIMPLESTRUCTURE THAT IT
IS FOR COMPLICATED ONES.
SIMPLICITY AND SYMMETRY
ELONGATED
SHAPES
ELONGATED SHAPES
• Buildings of great length or plan area may not respond to
earthquakes in the way calculated
• The ground is assumed to be elastic, and the propagation of
seismic waves is not instantaneous.
• Too long in plan – subjected to different movements
simultaneously at the two ends, leading to disastrous results –
broken into a number of separate square buildings
• Large plan areas – subjected to excessive horizontal seismic
forces that will have to be carried by the columns and walls
• Tall Buildings – large height to base ratio (slenderness ratio >
4), horizontal movement during ground shaking is large. The
more slender a building, the worse the overturning effects of an
earthquake
ELONGATED SHAPES -
EXAMPLES
 STIFFNESS AND
STRENGTH
• Strength is the property of an element to resist force. Stiffness is
the property of an element to resist displacement.
• On the basis of stiffness, the structure may be classified as brittle
and ductile.
• A brittle structure having a greater stiffness proves to be less
durable during an earthquake, while a ductile structure performs
well in earthquake.
• Uniformity of strength and stiffness in elevation helps to avoid
formation of soft and weak storey.
• A sudden change of lateral stiffness of a building is not acceptable
due to the following reasons:
a) Even with most sophisticated and
expensive computerized analysis,
the earthquake stress can not be
determined adequately.

b) The structural detailing poses

practical problems.

• Buildings with vertical setback cause

a sudden jump of earthquake forces at the
level of discontinuity.
• Buildings that have fewer columns or walls in a particular
storey or that have unusually tall storey are prone to damage or
collapse.
• One of the most common form of discountinuity occurs in
vertical elements when shear walls what are present in upper
floors are discontinued in the lower floors which results in
frequent formation of soft storey that concentrates damages.
• The unequal height of columns causes
twisting and damage to the short columns of
the building. It is because shear force is
concentrated in relatively stiff short
columns which fails before the long
column.
• Buildings with columns that hang or float on
beams at an intermediate storey have
discountinuities in load transfer path.