Numerical Study of Tilted Multi-Storied RCC

Buildings on Shallow Foundations Considering

Soil-Structure Interaction
Devjit Acharjee
Dept.of Construction Engineering
Jadavpur University
Kolkata, India
ORCID: 0000-0002-8454-9038
Srijani Bandyopadhyay Debasish Bandyopadhyay
Dept.of Civil Engineering Dept.of Construction Engineering
Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology Jadavpur University
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
email: srijanib1999@gmail.com ORCID: 0000-0003-1968-701X

Abstract— Tilt and settlement of mid-rise RCC buildings stability and structural responses due to various extent of
with shallow foundations in alluvial soil has become a common uniaxial and biaxial tilts considering soil-structure interaction.
problem, greatly affecting the structural stability; thus demands
accurate investigation. Tilt monitoring to assess the verticality
and non-destructive tests to assess strength & quality of concrete
are practiced in real life situation, which cannot infer the overall
building stability. Numerical modelling with fixed supports may
address the stability issue to some extent, but the soil-structure
interaction seems to contribute to a great extent on the stability
of the tilted buildings; mainly on softer soil. Numerical study of
building models on finite element platform considering different
foundation & soil types, nature & extent of tilts, building Fig. 1. Differential settlement and tilt of RCC buildings
configurations have been made in the present paper. It is found
that soil type, soil-structure interaction, building configuration,
II. NUMERICAL MODELLING
amount & type of tilt have significant role on the stability of
tilted buildings. The present study may be explored for safety The numerical models of OMRF G+4 RCC buildings with
evaluation and retrofit of existing multi-storied tilted buildings. same floor plan area of 150 m2 (10 m X 15 m) and same height
Keywords—Settlement, Soil-Structure-Interaction (SSI), of 17.1 m are developed in SAP2000 platform (Refer Fig. 2.).
Stability, Structural Configuration, Tilt

I. INTRODUCTION
Rapid urbanization, scarcity of land and vast demand of
housings resulted in construction of numerous mid-rise G+4
storied building structures. Buildings situated on alluvial flood
plain are prone to differential settlement and subsequent tilt
(Refer Fig. 1.), which may pose threat to the overall structural
Fig. 2. Plan and Elevation of 2-bay and 3-bay RCC buildings
stability. Stability of RCC buildings over fixed supports were
greatly affected due to incremental tilts [2-4]; which was more A. Material Properties, Section Details and Loads Applied
prominent while considering the P-Δ effect [4]. The tilt and The material properties considered for structural analysis
differential settlement had affected the lower storey columns and design are M25 grade concrete and Fe 500 D grade steel.
more than that of the higher storey ones [2,15]. Analyses of The floor and roof slabs are 100 mm thick (shell thin elements)
RCC frames over isolated foundations have shown that and the frame section properties are given in Table I.
differential settlements resulted in development of higher
force in the frame elements [7, 8, 16, 18]; leading to the TABLE I. Frame Section Properties of 2 & 3 Bay Models
damage of structural members [17]. Different case studies for
tilted buildings were made and remedial actions according to
the magnitude of tilt was reported [6]. The damage limits due
to angular distortions for different performance criteria of the
structures was specified [5]. IS 1904 [14] has recommended
allowable limit of angular distortion for framed RCC The considered loads and load combinations, applied on
buildings as 1/300. Buildings with shallow foundations on structural members of the RCC buildings, are as per IS codal
filled up soils; excavation of adjoining plots of the building stipulations [10-13]. Detailed description are given in [2].
without adequate lateral support, excessive loads on B. Amount and Type of Tilt Considerd
overhanging portions, poor workmanship, improper design & The tilt is assumed to be a post construction defect. Tilts
construction etc. are responsible differential settlement and are considered of two types i.e. Uniaxial (in X-direction) and
tilt. The objective of this proposed paper is to study the effect Bi-axial (in X and Y-directions) tilt. The tilt is incorporated at
of soil & foundations, structural configuration on the building the roof level initially with 50 mm and subsequently with the

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Information Classification: General

 increment of 50 mm up to 250 mm. In each case, the lines get steeper for same type of shallow foundation situated
deformation due to tilt is considered as rigid body movement. on soft clay, indicating column foundations placed on soft clay
are susceptible to higher seismic responses and thus more
C. Modelling of Soil and RCC Shallow Foundations
vulnerable, when compared to that of dense sandy soil; for a
Soil and different RCC shallow foundations are modelled tilted RCC building with certain structural configuration.
using 8 noded 3D solid elements in FE platform to assess the
effect of SSI on various structural responses in addition to the
other parametric studies. Soil and RCC foundation properties
are given below in Table II & Table III. The no. of various
elements in the numerical models of are given in Table IV.

TABLE II. Properties of Considered Soil Types

TABLE III. Properties of Considered Shallow Foundations Fig. 3.Reinforcement demand (%) of corner columns of
different RCC building structures

TABLE IV. No. of Elements in RCC Buildings

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Reinforcement demand for structural adequacy, roof level Roof level lateral displacement (mm) of corner
Fig. 4.
lateral displacements (of corner columns) and fundamental columns of different RCC building structures
vibration periods of the structures are compared in the present
study to assess the effect of SSI on stability of tilted buildings
with different shallow foundations over alluvial soils.
The design reinforcement demand and roof level
displacement of the numerical models linearly increase with
incremental tilt. The equations of the respective straight lines
suggest that type & extent of tilt, structural configuration,
foundation type, and soil properties have a great influence on
the stability of the tilted RCC buildings as evident from the
design reinforcement demand and lateral roof displacement of
the corner columns, situated in the direction of tilt. The
increasing rate of both the parameters for biaxial tilt are much Fundamental natural time period (Sec) of numerical
Fig. 5.
higher than that of uniaxial tilt; indicating it as more threat to models of different RCC building structures
the stability of RCC buildings. For a certain degree of tilt, the
The IS codal stipulation (based on empirical expressions)
RCC buildings with 3 bays in their structural system perform
yields the approximate fundamental natural time period of all
better than those with 2 bays in their structural system;
the structures as 0.487 sec & 0.397 sec in X & Y direction
irrespective of the foundation & soil type. Among the different
respectively; irrespective of foundation & soil type, structural
type of shallow foundations supported on dense sand and soft
configuration, amount & type of tilt etc.; and are significantly
clay; performance of raft foundation seems to be the best,
shorter than FEA results of the structural models, especially
while strip footings perform better than the isolated
for the buildings supported on isolated footings over soft clay.
foundations; as clear from the design reinforcement demand
Results of the above graphs show that fundamental natural
and lateral roof displacement of columns. Slope of the trend
time period of the structures increase with incremental tilt.

Information Classification: General

 The results suggest that type & extent of tilt, structural
configuration, foundation type, and soil properties have a
great influence on the fundamental period of the tilted RCC
buildings. The significant increase in fundamental period of
vibration indicates an increase in flexibility of the tilted
buildings; which is more prominent for biaxial tilts. The
increasing rate of fundamental period of vibration is observed
to be more in case of RCC buildings with 2 bays in their
structural system, when compared to those with 3 bays in their
structural system. Among the different type of shallow
foundations supported on dense sand and soft clay; the results
show that the fundamental natural period of the buildings with
raft foundation seems to be in tune with the results for fixed
base consideration. The results of buildings with strip footings
deviate from the fixed base consideration more than the
buildings with raft foundations; while isolated foundations
show the highest deviation. Thus, the above results suggest
that shallow foundations on soft clayey soil behave totally
different from the fixed base consideration; which further
emphasizes to consider SSI for ensuring structural stability.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The present study is based on the numerical analysis of
existing tilted RCC buildings with different structural
configurations; considering SSI in the FE analysis using real
life alluvial soil properties under tilted buildings of greater
Kolkata. The conclusions of the study are as follows:
1) The tilt has significant effect on the overall structural
stability of the RCC multi-storied buildings. The design
demand of reinforcement increases with the incremental tilt.
2) The roof level lateral displacements and fundamental
period of vibration also increase with the incremental tilt.
3) The increase in reinforcement demand, lateral
displacements and higher reaction forces developed due to
the tilt indicate threat to the overall structural stability of the
buildings, which may result in distress.
4) The increase in flexibility of the structures due to the
tilt has an effect on the serviceability aspect of the buildings.
5) These adverse effects due to the tilt further gets
aggravated considering SSI. Especially buildings on soft
clayey soil are more susceptible to these adverse effects.
6) Among the different shallow foundations, the
structural responses of buildings with raft foundation
supported on dense sandy soil are in tune with the results
considering fixed base assumption. The stability is mostly
affected for RCC buildings with isolated foundation system.
7) Biaxial tilt is more harmful than that of uniaxial tilt;
suggesting tilt type greatly influences the structural stability.
8) The buildings with three bays in their structural
systems perform better than the two bay ones under various
loadings. This indicates that structural configuration has
significant effect on the stability of tilted buildings.
Thus, detail numerical analysis of the tilted RCC multi-
storied buildings including SSI seems to be significant to
Information Classification: General
evaluate the overall stability of these structures. The proposed
study may subsequently be extended to evaluate the efficiency
and feasibility of various retrofit schemes for the safety of
these buildings; based on non-linear pushover analysis results.
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