Effect of irregular structural configuration on floor acceleration demand in hill‐side buildings

Summary A suite of reinforced‐concrete frame buildings located on hill sides, with 2 different structural configurations, viz step‐back and split‐foundation, are analyzed to study their floor response. Both step‐back and split‐foundation structural configurations lead to torsional effects in the direction across the slope due to the presence of shorter columns on the uphill side. Peak floor acceleration and floor response spectra are obtained at each storey's center of rigidity and at both its stiff and flexible edges. As reported in previous studies as well, it is observed that the floor response spectra are better correlated with the ground response spectrum. Therefore, the floor spectral amplification functions are obtained as the ratio of spectral ordinates at different floor levels to the one at the ground level. Peaks are observed in the spectral amplification functions corresponding to the first 2 modes in the upper portion of the hill‐side buildings, whereas a single peak corresponding to a specific k th mode of vibration is observed on the floors below the uppermost foundation level. Based on the numerical study for the step‐back and split‐foundation hill‐side buildings, simple floor spectral amplification functions are proposed and validated. The proposed spectral amplification functions take into account both the buildings' plan and elevation irregularities and can be used for seismic design of acceleration‐sensitive nonstructural components, given that the supporting structure's dynamic characteristics, torsional rotation, ground‐motion response spectrum, and location of the nonstructural components within the supporting structure are known, because current code models are actually not applicable to hill‐side buildings.