Investigation of the effects of column inclination on the performance of frame reinforced concrete buildings

Columns that are not vertical but have a certain inclination have been seen more in recent years, although they were rarely seen in reinforced concrete structures before. It can be stated that the reason for their implementation is mostly due to architectural design. It can be stated that studies on the effects of inclined columns on the static and dynamic behavior of structures are scarce. In addition, it cannot be said that there is detailed information about inclined columns in the regulations and standards related to the calculation and design of the structures. For this reason, using inclined columns has generally been seen as complex and rather difficult to determine behavior for engineers. In this thesis, it is aimed to examine the effects of column inclination on the static and dynamic behavior of the building. For this purpose, for buildings with different number of story (3, 5, 9, 12, 15 story) and building heights, vertical and inclined columns were taken into account separately. Efforts were made to ensure that other parameters in the building were the same or similar just to reveal the effect of column inclination. By comparing the behavior of the reference building with vertical columns and buildings with inclined columns, the effects of the use of inclined columns on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frame buildings were investigated. The natural period of the building, floor stiffness, floor offset, base shear force etc. Seismic analyzes were carried out in order to comparatively reveal the changes in the parameters. The aforementioned seismic analyzes were carried out by taking into account the provisions of TBDY-2018 Turkey Building Earthquake Code and using ETABS 2019 software. As a result of the analyzes carried out, it was observed that the natural vibration periods decreased in buildings with inclined columns. On the other hand, in buildings with inclined columns, especially heigh-rise buildings higher lateral stiffness was obtained. However, it has also been noticed that the effect of column inclination on the story drift in buildings with inclined columns can be positive or negative depending on the story drift direction and the inclination direction of the columns.