Page 53 - EQTips_Eng

IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tip 26

What Harms Load Paths in Buildings? page 2
and direct (Figure 3b). This creates undesirable
interrupted load transfer along the SW height. Design
codes require special attention in the design and
detailing of walls between openings, to reduce
negative effects of openings and ensure desirable
ductile behaviour of buildings with SWs.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5: Poor configurations of walls in
Buildings – (a) discontinuing walls in lower
storeys, (b) moving wall in same plane, but to
adjacent bay, and (c) moving wall out-of-plane
to inside, but same bay.

Different Load Paths
(a) (b)

Figure 3: Openings in walls of buildings – (a)
uniform size and location, and (b) random size
and location

(b) Discontinuity, out-of-plane offsets and in-plane offsets
in SWs in lower elevations Different
Load
Sometimes, in the lower storeys of buildings, SWs Paths

are discontinued completely (Figures 4a and 5a),

discontinued but moved in-plane (Figures 4b and 5b),

or discontinued and moved out-of-plane (Figures 4c

and 5c). This leads to abrupt changes in load path. (a) (b)
Buildings with such wall configurations perform
poorly in earthquakes. Such options should be Figure 6: Hybrid load paths in structural walls
avoided in earthquake-resistant buildings. (SWs) – (a) SW truncated in part, and (b) SW
truncated fully

Load
Path Related - Earthquake Tip

Load Path Tip 7: How buildings twist during earthquakes?
Tip 18: How do beams in RC buildings resist earthquake effects?
Tip 20: How do beam-column joints in RC buildings resist
Adapted from: Arnold and Reitherman, 1982 (b) earthquakes?
Tip 21: Why are open ground storey buildings vulnerable in
earthquakes?
Tip 23: Why are buildings with shear walls preferred in seismic
regions?
Load
Path
Resource Material
Load follows stiffer structural Arnold,C., and Reitherman,R., (1982), Building Configuration and

elements in structure – it bends Seismic Design, John Wiley, USA
and detours, when structural Ambrose,J., and Vergun,D., (1999), Design for Earthquakes, John
elements are not in same plane.
Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA
(a) (c)

Figure 4: Undesirable shifts and splits in Load Authored by:

Paths, when structural elements are moved: C.V.R.Murty
(a),(c) out-of-plane, (b) in-plane Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India
Sponsored by:

(c) Truncating structural walls in upper elevations Building Materials and Technology Promotion
When SWs are discontinued at upper elevations Council, New Delhi, India
over a part of their width (Figure 6a), or over the full
width at a certain height (Figure 6b), abrupt changes This release is a property of IIT Kanpur and BMTPC. It may
occur in stiffness and strength of the building within a be reproduced without changing its contents with due
acknowledgement. Suggestions or comments may be sent
vertical plane. These practices should be avoided in to: nicee@iitk.ac.in. To see all IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tips, visit
earthquake-resistant buildings. www.nicee.org or www.bmtpc.org.