A Study on Comparative Analysis of RCC Building Resting on Plain and Hilly Terrain

In a developing country like India there is a scarcity of land due to urbanization and industrialization, which led the way for construction of high rise multistorey buildings on hilly regions. The economic growth and rapid urbanization in hilly region has accelerated the real estate development. Due to this, population density in the hilly region has increased enormously. Therefore, there is popular and pressing demand for the construction of multistorey buildings on hill slope in and around the cities. Hill buildings are different from those in plains; they are very irregular and unsymmetrical in horizontal and vertical planes, and torsionally coupled. Hence, they are susceptible to severe damage when affected by earthquake ground motion. Past earthquakes [e.g. Kangra (1905), Bihar- Nepal (1934 & 1980), Assam (1950), Tokachi-Oki-Japan (1968), Uttarkashi-India (1991)][1], have proved that buildings located near the edge of stretch of hills or sloping ground suffered severe damages. Such buildings have mass and stiffness varying along the vertical and horizontal planes, resulting the center of mass and center of rigidity do not coincide on various floors. This requires torsional analysis; in addition to lateral forces under the action of earthquakes. Little information is available in the literature about the analysis of buildings on sloping ground. The investigation presented in this paper aimed at predicting the seismic response of RC buildings with different configuration on sloping and plain ground.