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You can use ETABS 2015 or higher and use 'Tower' option to separate both buildings in the same model.

*SEFP Consistent Design* *UBC Seismic Drift Limits* *Doc No: 10-00-CD-0003* *Date: June 04, 2013* The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to evaluate building drifts and story drifts using UBC 97 guidelines. The philosophy behind Story Drift Limits is “Deflection Control”; In UBC 97, deflection control is specified in terms of the story drift as a limit on the lateral displacement of one level relative to the level below. The story drift is determined from the maximum inelastic response, ΔM. Let’s start by defining the design-level response displacements. The elastic deflections due to strength-level design seismic forces are called design-level response displacements. These are denoted by ΔS, where the subscript ‘s’ stands for strength design. Design level response displacements are what you get out of your software, when you run analysis. Please note that structural analysis softwares may provide these values in different formats; say a percentage of height or a direct output. Well, to calculate your story drifts, first you need to find maximum inelastic response displacements from your design-level response displacements. The maximum inelastic response displacement is defined as: ΔM = 0.7RΔS Where, R is the structural system coefficient, the subscript ‘m’ in ΔM signifies that we are calculating a maximum value for the deflection due to seismic response that includes inelastic behavior. Seismic drift values are much larger than wind values. UBC uses maximum inelastic response displacements rather than the design level displacements to verify the performance of the building. Seismic drift limits are 2% & 2.5% of the story height for long and short -period buildings. For a floor to floor height of 12 feet the max., allowable inelastic drift value would be 2% of 12 feet= 0.02*12*12 in=2.88 in. For wind for a 12 story height, drift would be L/400=12*12/400 =0.36 inches, A comparison of both wind and seismic drift limits shows that earthquake inelastic displacements are quiet large compared to wind displacements. That is why proper detailing is emphasized in seismic design. When calculating ΔS for seismic, make sure: You have included accidental torsion in your analysis. Use strength design load combinations: 1.2D + 1.0E + 0.5L & 0.9D + 1.0E. You are using cracked section properties for reinforced concrete buildings. Typical values are Icr walls= 0.5EcIg, Beams = 0.5EcI g & for Columns 0.5 - 0.7 EcIg. Use a reliability/ redundancy factor= 1 to calculate seismic forces. Whenever the dynamic analysis procedure of §1631 is used, story drift should be determined as the modal combination of the story drift for each mode. Determination of story drift from the difference of the combined mode displacements may produce erroneous results because maximum displacement at a given level may not occur simultaneously with those of the level above or below. Differences in the combined mode displacements can be less than the combined mode story drift. Example: A four-story special moment-resisting frame (SMRF) building has the following design level response displacements.(See attached Image) R= 7.0, I= 1 Time period= 0.6 sec (See the attached image for Story Information) Calculate: Maximum Inelastic response displacements. Story drift in story 3 due to ΔM. Check story 3 for story drift limit. Maximum Inelastic response displacements ΔM = 0.7RΔS ΔM = (0.7) (7) ΔS = (4.9) ΔS (See the attached image for Maximum Inelastic response displacements) Story drift in story 3 due to ΔM Story 3 is located between Levels 2 and 3. Thus ΔM drift = 5.39 - 3.43 = 1.96 in. Check story 3 for story drift limit. For structures with a fundamental period less than 0.7 seconds, §1630.10.2 requires that the ΔM story drift not exceed 0.025 times the story height. For story 3: Story drift using ΔM = 1.96 in. Story drift limit = 0.025 *(12*12) in = 3.6 in. > 1.96 in. Therefore, Okay.

Hello everyone, I tried modelling two buildings which are close to each other in ETABS. When i tried to see time period at different modes. Etabs animated one building only for a particular mode. How does Etabs deal with such models? How can I see the animation of both building at once???

Thanks. I forgot to state that I was using RISA3D but its good to know options available in ETABS. You can also use the formula for maximum inelastic response displacement to separate the buildings. Check this Thanks.

Adding a basement for home construction is obviously the owner's choice. But as a structural engineer for home construction in Pakistan, I would highly recommend not to add basement. This is due to lot of additional expenses, like RCC retaining walls, waterproofing, flood control, toilet/bath expenses, ventilation etc. If designed and constructed properly you do not need to worry about earthquake. Again, I would have added one and half additional floors from the same money being spent on basement and also forget about the worries mentioned above. Or could have spent it elsewhere like finishes, elevations etc. And what do you mean by Pillar foundation?

Design strips are required to get total reinforcement area by integrating stresses of area objects.

Thank you sir. This forum is by far one of the best forum I'm in.

The following site has good masonry design resources: http://ccmpa.ca/ Thanks.

It is a very good question. I was in a similar situation recently but I separated my models. Wonder how do softwares consider that..

Only exterior walls need to be of RCC. For construction purpose, U can consult the following manual. and MUST follow its practices. But remember, it is not the design manual. So you need to have a good design of your house including footings, RCC walls, band beams, and corner columns etc.

It can happen when lateral loads are included in combinations. Stresses of reversal due to lateral loads causes any side of joint in continuous beam to have tension on lower side causing positive moment at support on one side. So check if ur combination is including lateral loads.

Also keep mesh size same i manual and automesh option. Automesh option, if not specified, does meshing at max size of 4ft x 4ft. If mesh size is same, Then do as sir Waseem said. i think results should not vary if slab is meshed manually or automatically.

What meshing you are talking about? Slab meshing supported on these beams or beam meshing itself? What I could discern is you are using a shell element supported on beam. In this case, you should mesh the slab so that slab has nodes along the length of beam. Shell transfers loads to nodes and if not meshed, all the loads would go to beam ends at point loads.