Real and fictitious elastic axes of multi-storey buildings: theory

✍ Scribed by Makarios, T. ;Anastassiadis, K.

• Book ID: 101297183
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 488 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1062-8002
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1794(199803)7:1<33::aid-tal95>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

The application of the 'equivalent' static method for the seismic design of asymmetric buildings presupposes the existence of an elastic axis-the geometrical locus of the elastic centres of the floors-so as to identify the eccentricity of the seismic loads. But, while in single-storey buildings the elastic centre is always defined and has determined static properties, in multi-storey buildings the said properties are not, in general, identified and the definition of the elastic axis is, in general, impossible. In this paper, which is the first of two companion papers, we first proceed to the analysis of the cases of existence or non-existence of an elastic axis and of building's principal bending planes, according to research data of the last ten years. Following this stage, and based on the building's 'optimum torsion' criterion, a fictitious elastic axis is defined for every case of a regular-in-elevation building. This axis may play the same role as the real elastic axis during the application of the 'equivalent' static method.