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    Distribution of Lateral Forces

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    Gerald Ortiz
    Lateral forces act parallel to the ground and include wind loads, seismic loads, and water and earth pressures. Shear walls and bracing are commonly used structural elements to resist lateral forces and keep buildings upright. There are three main methods to distribute lateral forces in structures: the portal method for low-rise structures, the cantilever method for high-rise structures, and the Q factor method which uses experimental measurements to characterize vibration systems.

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    Distribution of Lateral Forces

    Uploaded by

    Gerald Ortiz
    374 views2 pages
    Lateral forces act parallel to the ground and include wind loads, seismic loads, and water and earth pressures. Shear walls and bracing are commonly used structural elements to resist lateral forces and keep buildings upright. There are three main methods to distribute lateral forces in structures: the portal method for low-rise structures, the cantilever method for high-rise structures, and the Q factor method which uses experimental measurements to characterize vibration systems.

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    problem sample 12

    Original Title

    DISTRIBUTION-OF-LATERAL-FORCES

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    Lateral forces act parallel to the ground and include wind loads, seismic loads, and water and earth pressures. Shear walls and bracing are commonly used structural elements to resist lateral forces and keep buildings upright. There are three main methods to distribute lateral forces in structures: the portal method for low-rise structures, the cantilever method for high-rise structures, and the Q factor method which uses experimental measurements to characterize vibration systems.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    374 views2 pages

    Distribution of Lateral Forces

    Uploaded by

    Gerald Ortiz
    Lateral forces act parallel to the ground and include wind loads, seismic loads, and water and earth pressures. Shear walls and bracing are commonly used structural elements to resist lateral forces and keep buildings upright. There are three main methods to distribute lateral forces in structures: the portal method for low-rise structures, the cantilever method for high-rise structures, and the Q factor method which uses experimental measurements to characterize vibration systems.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    DISTRIBUTION OF LATERAL FORCES

    Lateral loads or lateral forces are live loads that are applied parallel to the ground; that is, they are
    horizontal forces acting on a structure. They are different to gravity loads for example which are vertical,
    downward forces.

    The most common types are:

     Wind load.
     Seismic load.
     Water and earth pressure.

    Structures should be designed carefully with likely lateral loads in mind. A structural element that is


    typically used to resist lateral loads is a shear wall. In simple terms, lateral forces could push over
    parallel structural panels of a building were it not for perpendicular shear walls keeping them upright.

    Similarly, bracing can be used to resist lateral loads. The beams and columns of a braced frame


    structure carry vertical loads, whilst the bracing carries the lateral loads.

    Methods of Distributing Lateral Forces

    1. PORTAL METHOD

    The portal method is an approximate analysis used for analyzing building frames subjected to lateral
    loads such as Wind loads/ seismic forces. Since shear deformations are dominant in low rise structures,
    the method makes simplifying assumptions regarding horizontal shear in columns. Each bay of a
    structure is treated as a portal frame, and horizontal force is distributed equally among them.

    Assumptions in portal method 
    1. The points of inflection are located at the mid-height of each column above the first floor. If the base of
    the column is fixed, the point of inflection is assumed at mid height of the ground floor columns as well;
    otherwise it is assumed at the hinged column base.
    2. Points of inflection occur at mid span of beams.
    3. Total horizontal shear at any floor is distributed among the columns of that floor such that the exterior
    columns carry half the force carried by the inner columns.   
    2. CANTILEVER METHOD

    This method is applicable to high rise structures. This is based on the simplifying assumptions regarding
    the Axial Force in columns.

    Assumptions in cantilever method  
    1. The points of inflection are located at the mid-height of each column above the first floor. If the base of
    the column is fixed, the point of inflection is assumed at mid height of the ground floor columns as well;
    otherwise it is assumed at the hinged column base.
    2. Points of inflection occur at mid span of beams.
    3. The basic assumption of the method can be stated as “the axial force in the column at any floor is
    linearly proportional to its distance from the centroid of all the columns at that level.

    3. Q Factor Method

    Q factor is a very important parameter to characterize a vibration system. As the damping ratio that


    determines the Q factor is usually very small and difficult to estimate theoretically, the Q factor of a
    system is usually found through experimental measurements.

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