Determination of the maximum degree of inclination of the straight columns of a 4-story building based on its seismic behavior, Cajamarca, 2020

In Civil Engineering, there have been challenges in the structural design of buildings due to municipal ordinances, architectural designs or lighting issues; this is the main reason why the present study had the purpose of determining the maximum degree of inclination of the straight columns of a building, based on its seismic behavior without altering the design of the structural elements, for which the architectural and structural drawings of a 4-story building destined for hotels, located in the city of Cajamarca, whose resistant system is made of reinforced concrete frames, were used. This building was modeled in a structural model using the ETABS software, inclining the exterior columns from 0° to 10° starting from the base inwards, following the spectral modal analysis procedure indicated in the Peruvian standard E.030 to determine the maximum drifts compliance and thus calculate the maximum degree of inclination. The results showed that when the columns are inclined at an angle greater than or equal to 2°, an irregularity in height catalogued as "Discontinuity in the Resistant Systems"will be produced, causing an increase in the basal shear forces, and resulting in a new design of the structural elements, even though the drifts originated were smaller than those obtained in the building with straight columns. Therefore, it is concluded that the maximum degree of inclination of the straight columns of the building under analysis will be when the mentioned irregularity is not originated, being this value 1.9°, with which the hypothesis proposed is accepted, verifying that with this inclination the limit for the distortion of the mezzanine (drift) of 0.007 indicated by the Peruvian standard E.030 is complied with.