Efficient seismic analysis of building structure including floor slab

In general, building structures consist of structural elements such as beams, columns, and slabs. When the structural analysis is conducted for this kind of building structures, an analytical model which disregards the flexural stiffness of the floor slabs and the T-section beam effect has been usually selected for the simplification and efficiency of the structural analysis. However, this analytical model tends to underestimate the lateral stiffness of the structure to some degree. For more accurate dynamic analysis, the analytical model should include the flexural stiffness of the floor slabs and the T-section beam effect. In this case the floor slabs and beams should be divided into several elements, thus more time is required for the analysis procedure. In this study, to resolve the problems, efficient analytical modeling methods employing the substructuring techniques, super-elements, and rigid diaphragms are adapted. The analytical results of time history analysis and the computational time of various analyses for example structures are compared to investigate the validity of the modeling techniques proposed in this study. The proposed model does provide seismic response of the example structures in significantly reduced computational times while the accuracies in the analysis results are very close to those obtained from the refined model.