Accidental Eccentricity of Story Shear for Low-Rise Office Buildings

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a Monte Carlo simulation study on accidental eccentricity of low-rise office buildings. The study incorporates results of a live-load survey in several office buildings in Mexico City. Probability density functions (PDF) for both intensity and position of live load are initially obtained from this survey. These PDFs are used in the simulation procedure. Additionally, the position and intensity of dead load as well as the stiffness of lateral resisting elements are assumed to be random. Stiffness among columns is assumed to be uncorrelated. Five- and 10-story building models with square and rectangular plans are used. For each case, three types of slabs are included in order to account for different live-load to dead-load ratios. This study shows the effect of the following variables on the estimation of accidental eccentricities: vertical location of the story in the building, dead-load to live-load ratio, number of columns in a story, and the direction of analysis in rectangular plans.