Effects of Staircases on Seismic Performance of RC Buildings

In recent years, the design for seismic resistance has been undergone a critical reassessment with the emphasis of altering from strength to performance. The recent earthquakes in some parts of the world have exposed a catastrophic impact on civil areas. Turkey has been hit by several moderate to large earthquakes over the last decades, which have led to significant loss of life and property, the extreme damage and building collapse has indicated to insufficient seismic behaviour of multi-storey reinforced concrete buildings. Staircases are the main emergency exist in buildings and they are significantly important for escaping after earthquake, damages have been experienced in structures during earthquake because of the interaction of staircase and structure elements. This study investigates the impact of staircase and its location on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete building. Eight structures have been modelled by ETABS 16 program, four of them with considering staircase in four locations and four without considering staircase. Linear Static, Non linear Static Push over and Non-linear Time History analysis methods have been conducted by utilizing ETABS 16 program to evaluate the staircase effect on seismic performance of reinforced concrete buildings. It was observed that the staircase presence and its location affect the steel reinforcement ratio of columns, displacements, base shear force, stiffness, formation of short columns and formation of plastic hinges. Keywords: seismic performance, reinforced concrete buildings, staircases, push over analysis, time History analysis.