Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Frame Structure with Haunch Beams

The provision of a haunch in beams reduces self-weight, increases shear capacity at support, and enhances joint performance. The present study investigates the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings with different numbers of floors: six, nine, twelve, and fifteen floors with haunched beams. Twelve nonlinear static analyses have been conducted to predict seismic performances. Plastic hinges are provided with two ends, a central point of beams, and two ends of columns. The characteristic of plastic hinges of beams and columns controls major axis bending and bi-axial bending with axial compression, respectively. Beams and columns have been considered 2-nodded line elements for the finite element formulations. In most cases, ground floor columns reached the life safety level for the fifteen-storied structure under earthquake excitation compared to RC buildings with a smaller number of floors. In addition, almost 80% of the ground floor beams of the fifteen-storied structure have reached the collapsed prevention performance level. Furthermore, the present finite element-based code used in this study has been validated with the identical model building of previously published work. The difference in results has been found to be (4–5) %, which ensures accuracy and better performance of the present study to enhance this research in the future.