Development of a numerical tool for the analysis of reinforced concrete slabs under seismic vertical accelerations

Abstract

During the Chile Centre-South 27^th February 2010 earthquake, many structures were strongly shaken due to considerable horizontal accelerations; however, the vertical acceleration component was important too. This feature has motivated this work, where the vertical acceleration component effect on reinforced concrete slabs is studied, when this acceleration acts on the slab edges. The methodology contemplated a computer software written in MATLAB code. This program uses the FEM and allows the calculation of stresses and strains in the slab. Initially a static analysis was carried out, which consisted of calculating the stress distributions generated by a uniformly distributed static load according to the norm NCh 1537Of.86. Subsequently, the seismic analysis consisted of obtaining the stress envelopes caused by the vertical acceleration recording of San Pedro de la Paz for the 27/02/2010 earthquake. The theoretical framework, the FEM formulation and the numerical validation of the results are presented. Then, two slabs with different geometry are analysed with the purpose of estimating the stress distributions for the static case and the stress envelopes for the seismic case; as well as the natural frequencies and periods for each slab. The results reveal that stresses induced by the static loads are higher than the induced by the seismic loading for the slab with a fundamental period of 0.031 s, whilst the contrary resulted for the slab with a fundamental period of 0.104 s.