Displacement-based seismic design of flat slab-shear wall buildings

Flat slab system is becoming widely popular for multistory buildings due to its several advantages. However, the performance of flat slab buildings under earthquake loading is unsatisfactory due to their vulnerability to punching shear failure. Several national design codes provide guidelines for designing flat slab system under gravity load only. Nevertheless, flat slab buildings are also being constructed in high seismicity regions. In this paper, performance of flat slab buildings of various heights, designed for gravity load alone according to code, is evaluated under earthquake loading as per ASCE/SEI 41 methodology. Continuity of slab bottom reinforcement through column cage improves the performance of flat slab buildings to some extent, but it is observed that these flat slab systems are not adequate in high seismicity areas and need additional primary lateral load resisting systems such as shear walls. A displacement-based method is proposed to proportion shear walls as primary lateral load resisting elements to ensure satisfactory performance. The methodology is validated using design examples of flat slab buildings with various heights.