Comparative analysis of soft storey mechanismusing different codal standards

Soft storey or open ground storey is an unavoidable feature in the multi-storey building. It is open for the purpose of parking or reception lobbies. It is also called as stilts storey. A large number of buildings with soft storey have been built in recent years. But it showed poor performance during past earthquake. Therefore it is need of time to take immediate measures to prevent the indiscriminate use of soft first storey in buildings, which are designed without regard to the increased displacement and force demands in the first storey columns. In this regard, this study talks about the provided strength and stiffness to the 2D building frame by modified soft storey provision in two ways - (i) By providing stiffer column and (ii) By providing adjacent infill wall panel at each corner of building frame. Also comparison of results has been carried out to compare modified soft storey provisions with complete infill wall frame and bare frame models of structure designed with Indian and American Standards using Finite Element Method software ETABS 2013