Seismic analysis of RC frame with and without shear walls

This Research paper reflects the seismic importance of Shear walls in RC frames. A proposed 8-storey symmetric (rectangular in plan) RC building in Kashmir (INDIA) is chosen as model in this study. The building is first modeled using Indian Standard Code of Practice (IS 875, parts I-V) specified for school occupancy and then designed for gravity and lateral loads manually using Moment Distribution Method (MDM). The results from MDM were fed to a FORTRAN based program developed by the University of Buffalo called IDARC-2D to carry out inelastic two dimensional analyses on selected frame (critical one) from the building. This program is able to compute what is known as ‘structural damage index’ which is a way of quantifying numerically the seismic damage suffered by buildings. The damage indices such as base shear, storey drift, displacement etc. are computed for each storey by IDAREC-2D using the modified ELCENTRO (1940) design response spectra for critical frame without and with shear walls (at different locations) separately. The damage indices for each storey, with and without shear walls were tabulated and plotted on a same scale for comparison study and discussion. Conclusions are drawn from the work and important recommendations on the basis of results are drawn from the comparisons and conclusions.