A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FLOATING COLUMNS UNDER SEISMIC LOADS

Currently, structures with floating columns are a common characteristic of contemporary multistory construction in metropolitan India. Such characteristics are very undesirable in structures located in seismically active regions. This research emphasises the need of clearly acknowledging the existence of the floating column in construction analysis. Proposed alternative approaches include achieving a stiffness equilibrium between the first story and the storey above to mitigate the irregularity caused by the floating columns. Earthquakes in various regions of the world clearly demonstrate the perilous repercussions and susceptibility of insufficiently constructed edifices. In contemporary urban India, structures with floating columns may be a characteristic element of popular multi-storey constructions. The floating column may be a vertical element that rests on a beam at its lower level. The unstable inertia forces produced at the floor levels of a structure must be transmitted from the top to the base, and any deviation or disruption in this load transfer pathway results in suboptimal performance. Consequently, solutions such as floating columns are very undesirable in structures constructed in seismically active regions. The gift research investigates the detrimental effects of floating columns in the structure. Models of the frame system are constructed for multi-storey reinforced concrete structures, both with and without floating columns, to conduct a comparative analysis of structural characteristics such as natural frequency, base shear, and horizontal displacement under seismic excitation. The current research conducted a seismic analysis and design of a multi-story structure with floating elements using ETABS 2018. This research considers two forms of floating: outward floating and interior floating. The outcomes, including story drift, shear force, bending moment, and building torsion, are analysed for a G+10 structure with and without floating columns