Structural reliability and performance evaluation of symmetric and asymmetric multi-storey buildings subjected to lateral wind forces

Lately there has been enormous enhancement of buildings architecturally. Most of the buildings are designed and constructed with diverse variations like soft-storey, torsional irregularity, asymmetrical layout of walls, irregularities in plan and elevation and thus overall building configuration. Any such variation result in challenging implications in terms of structural reliability and appropriate design of structural members. Calculation of lateral forces on these structures is an essential process in case of high- rise structures and structural performance of these aesthetically appealing asymmetric irregular shaped buildings especially when subjected to heavy wind forces need to be carefully assessed by structural engineers. The present work intends at performance evaluation by studying structural reliability of symmetrical and asymmetrical regular square, L, C and T-shaped reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings subjected to wind loads. The wind load analysis on these buildings is carried out in line with ASCE 7-10 design code. A comparative evaluation of critical parameters like fundamental period, natural and circular frequency of building, maximum joint displacement, storey drift ratio, inter-storey drift, internal forces in structural members, storey response and storey stiffness determines that difference in shape of a particular storey (or building) influence overall structural performance of building.