Experimental and parametric investigation of effects of built-in staircases on the dynamics of RC buildings

Past earthquakes, in many instances, have demonstrated poor performance of commonly used built-in staircase configurations. Codal provisions in India pertaining to staircases present a rather simple approach wherein the effects of built-in staircases on the overall dynamic properties or on the local behavior of structures are not addressed explicitly. Studies in the past have highlighted the scale of such effects, but most of them have relied completely on analytical models of buildings. This study analyzes the adequacy of the codal provisions by investigating two finite element (FE) models calibrated using ambient and forced vibration measurements. The effects of variations in building height, layout of staircase in plan, and presence of masonry infill walls in stairwells are also examined. The codal guidelines regarding empirical estimation of period and provision of enclosure walls around built-in staircases are found to be adequate. However, for the case of built-in staircases without enclosure walls, the force and displacement demands on landing beams are found to be considerably high. Drift-based approaches to estimate these demands are proposed.