# Assessing the Seismic Demands on Non-Structural Components Attached to Reinforced Concrete Frames
## 5 Results and Discussion
### Normalized Floor Amplification  
This research assesses a normalized floor amplification factor to examine the influence of irregularity on the floor response relative to the building's height (relative height is the ratio between the height of the structure with respect to the base and the height of the roof of the structure with respect to the base). Figure 8 shows the variation of peak floor response (PFR) normalized with a peak ground acceleration (PGA = 0.36 g) with the height of a building. This study considers the peak floor acceleration response as the PFR. It can be prudently observed from Figure 8a that the PFR/PGA values for regular buildings are 3.17, 3.79, and 3.85 on the 5 th floor level for Soil A, Soil B, and Soil C conditions, respectively. At the same floor level, PFR/PGA values for irregular buildings (Figure 8b) are higher and are 3.60, 4.17, and 4.54 for Soil A, Soil B, and Soil C conditions, respectively. Figure 9 compares the variation of the floor amplification for regular and irregular building models for different soil profiles. It is noted from Figure 9 that the ratio of PFR/PGA is larger for irregular buildings than regular buildings for all soil types. The floor acceleration is shown to be higher under soft soil (Soil C) conditions in both regular and irregular building models. It is clear from the figure that the values of the ratio PFR/PGA for all soil conditions range from 1.08 to 3.85 for regular buildings and 1.53 to 4.55 for irregular buildings. The variation of floor acceleration throughout the building height is found to be nonlinear irrespective of the type of building and the soil condition. A similar conclusion was derived with the help of a height factor in the study of [PERSON] et al. [18]. Figure 7: Peak floor spectral acceleration for different soil types with respect to 1 st modal time period. Several code formulas exist to assess the variation of peak floor acceleration along with the structure's height. The floor amplification factor (\({\it{PFR}}/{\it{PGA}}\)) specifications for several seismic codes, including ASCE 7-16 [38], Eurocode 8 [43], and GB 50011-2010 [44], are provided by Equations (1)-(3), respectively. \[{\it{PFR}}/{\it{PGA}}=1+2\frac{z}{h} \tag{1}\]  
\[{\it{PFR}}/{\it{PGA}}=1+1.5\frac{z}{h} \tag{2}\]  
\[{\it{PFR}}/{\it{PGA}}=1+\frac{z}{h} \tag{3}\]  
Figure 8: Normalized floor amplification of **(a)** regular building; **(b)** irregular building. Figure 9: Comparison of normalized floor amplification between regular and irregular buildings for different soil types. From Figure 10, it can be observed that ASCE 7-16 overestimates the PFR demands for a regular model and underestimates those for an irregular model at a lower story (first floor level) in all soil types. ASCE 7-16 underestimated the PFR demands in regular and irregular building models for the remaining floor levels. Eurocode 8 and GB 50011 also underestimated the PFR demands in regular and irregular building models along with the height of the building except at the first floor level. Figure 11 compares the floor amplification factors acquired in this study with those derived from the formulation suggested by the Applied Technology Council (ATC) in the USA. This formulation can be seen in Equations (4)-(7). \[ \begin{split} PFR/PGA&=1+a_{1}\Big{[}\frac{z}{h} \Big{]}+a_{2}\Big{[}\frac{z}{h}\Big{]}^{10}\\ a_{1}&=\frac{1}{T_{abldg}}\leq 2.5\\ a_{2}&=\left[1-\left(\frac{0.4}{T_{abldg}}\right)^{ 2}\right]>0\\ \end{split}  \tag{4}\]  
Figure 10: Comparison of floor amplification factors between the considered building models and current codes. According to ASCE/SEI 7-16 [38] equation 12.8-7, \(T_{abldg}\), also known as the estimated fundamental translational period of the building, is as follows:  
\[T_{abldg}=C_{t}h_{n}^{x} \tag{7}\]  
where \(h_{n}\) is the height of the building in meters, and the coefficients \(C_{t}\) and \(x\) are determined from Table 12.8-2 of ASCE/SEI 7-16 [38].