Abstract Irregular buildings, found globally, often have uneven mass and strength distribution in vertical and horizontal planes, making them highly susceptible to seismic forces, resulting in distinct performance and failure patterns compared to regular buildings. This is especially true for the buildings on hilly terrain. This study examines the seismic behaviour of these irregular buildings, with emphasis on construction in Meghalaya, India, a region where all districts lie in the highly active Zone V. To assess these structures, pushover analysis and capacity spectrum methods are adopted. A comparative study is performed based on existing irregularity indicators and seismic fragility assessment for different geometric irregular buildings: regular (R), stepped (ST), setback (SB), buildings with in-plane discontinuity (FC), buildings which rest on two varying ground levels (HB1) and buildings that follow the ground’s natural slope (HB2). Two different storey levels (5 and 8) are considered to assess the effect of height. The seismic analysis shows that HB2 buildings are more vulnerable than other cases. It is followed by HB1 with comparable vulnerability in the collapse damage state. Interestingly, frames of stepped (ST) and setback (SB) buildings performed better compared to regular buildings (R), attributed to their reduced effective mass and altered stiffness distribution. The study demonstrates that the height of the building and the probability of exceedance are inversely proportional to each other. The building models HB1 and HB2 have lower displacement ductility than the building frames ST and SB, according to the capacity curve study. Results also indicate that the building’s height directly correlates with the displacement ductility (ultimate displacement/yield displacement).
Gali et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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