Comparison of Seismic Performance of Buildings with Conventional Slab and Flat Slab in Different Zones of Bangladesh

As usable land is scarce in Bangladesh, the demand for high-rise buildings has risen over the past few decades. Conventionally, reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures in Bangladesh have been used for residential, educational, institutional it is of utmost importance to assess seismic conditions while constructing a structure. Three types of slabs have been analyzed: conventional RCC slab, flat slab with drop panel, and flat slab with drop panel & shear wall. Typically, a conventional RCC slab contains a beam, column & slab with a large thickness of the beam. To avoid this, a flat slab with a drop panel may be used, but it has some limitations. As it has no lateral support, a flat slab with a shear wall can be replaced to gain more stability. According to BNBC 2006, Bangladesh was divided into three seismic zones. However, according to BNBC 2020, it is revised into four seismic zones. Seismic comparisons of three models in four seismic zones have been conducted. Maximum story displacement, maximum story drift, overturning moment and story shear have been found after analyzing three different types of models located in different seismic zones. The maximum story displacement and maximum story drift for flat slabs are greater than conventional slabs and flat slabs with shear walls. Moreover, the displacement between conventional and flat slabs with shear walls varies a little. Maximum overturning moment and story shear: it appears that for the traditional slab, the value is maximum, the flat slab is minimum, and the flat slab with the shear wall is between those two. The model for flat slab has been found to be more flexible than conventional RCC slab and flat slab with the shear wall.