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My Passion for Structural Engineering

Building Drifts in ETABS

By Rana Waseem / July 15, 2012 / Modelling / 15 comments


Building Drift in ETABS
Drift is a very complex topic in structural engineering. It involves too many factors to arrive at a suitable
decision. It involves engineering judgment, the phenomenon fresh engineers might not feel. In this
article, I have tried to explain what is building drift, allowable limits, ways and means to check in
ETABS models and to control the excessive drift. Please keep in mind, this article is not about the
building drift as far as structural science is concerned, rather this topic of drift is related to ETABS
software.
First of all you must be familiar with the term story drift. For convenience, I am quoting here the
definitions from UBC-97 code:-

STORY DRIFT is the lateral displacement of one level relative


to the level above or below.
STORY DRIFT RATIO is the story drift divided by the story
height.
1) Maximum Limits
Now what for story drift limits? What is the maximum permissible value? Well it depends upon the type
of drift. Is it seismic or wind?
For seismic, I will refer to UBC-97 code which in section 1630.10.2 talks about drift limits for earthquake.

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
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Now in simple words, the maximum limit for seismic drift is:-

1 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

delta M shall not exceed 0.025 x story ht (if building seismic period is less than 0.7)
delta M shall not exceed 0.020 x story ht (if building seismic period is equal or greater than 0.7)
Important to note here is that it talks about SEISMIC drift so SEISMIC building period not the WIND
period.
Now delta M = Max inelastic response displacement = 0.7R delta S
where R = from Table 16-N
delta S = displacement from static, elastic analysis
this value is read from ETABS.
you multiply this value by 0.7R to get delta M
This was all about seismic drift, but for wind drift code is mute. I will refer you to ASCE 2005
commentary CC.1.2

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So we can understand that the limit for wind drift is “on the order of l/600 to l/400″ for “common usage”.
This is common thing, however, in reality this figure can be up or down depending upon the ductility of
cladding material and finishes. However for common usage value of l/400 is thought to be well
satisfactory. Here l means story ht.
The concept of drift limits is same throughout all the governing codes, and the typical limits of story
height by some number is same, but obviously you have to take care of the process of calculating the
wind force or seismic forces. You should not calculate wind force from one code and apply limits of
another code.

2) Load Combinations

Once the drift limit has been determined separately for seismic and wind forces, now is the need tocheck
the actual drift vs the limit. Determination of actual drift depends on the load combination and the
period of recurrence. If not properly calculated, this may dramatically increase or decrease the accepted
drift values in model.
Seismic force E is always already factored so that’s the reason its factor is always 1.0 in load
combinations of ACI/ASCE code. The recurrence period for seismic force is 50 years. In seismic drift we
do not convert it into service seismic force. Seismic drift is checked against the direct load case of EQx,
EQy etc in ETABS.
For wind drift, we need to convert 50 year wind to service wind force. It has been recommended by
ASCE commentary CC.1.2

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
/image006-763928.jpg)
To convert 50 year service wind force to 10 year service wind force it is multiplied by 0.7, as the equation
says, and other gravity loads; D and 0.5L are also added.

2 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

So in a nutshell we create following load combinations in ETABS to check our drift:-

DRIFTWx1 = D+0.5L+0.7Wx
DRIFTWx2 = D+0.5L-0.7Wx
DRIFTWy1 = D+0.5L+0.7Wy
DRIFTWy2 = D+0.5L-0.7Wy

For seismic drift, as discussed earlier, we do not need any combination, drift will be checked just on EQx
and EQy load cases only.

3) How to check in ETABS

Now we have obtained both the actual drift and the drift limit, but how can we do this in ETABS easily?
Well, after creating the drift combinations as discussed in step 2, we need to do as below:-
For seismic drift goto File>Print Tables>Summary Report

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
/image008-764834.png)
Select the file name

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
/image010-765647.jpg)
Scroll down to the end of the page, you will find out a section about drifts, similar to this one:-

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/image012-766507.jpg)
It displays the max drift for each lateral load case for each story. As we want the drift for wind to be on
drift load combinations and not on wind load cases, so we will not compare this wind drift without
limits. In this table we are going to check just the drift values of our ETABS model for individual seismic
load cases; EQx and EQy.

3 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

As you noticed, this table shows us values in fraction format. For example 1/105 that becomes
0.009523809524. This 1/105 value is story drift divided by story ht. It means delta S / story ht.
Now this value is delta S. First we need to convert it to delta M by multiplying it with 0.7R. Assume R
here is 3.5 so
delta M = 0.7 x 3.5 x 1/105 = 7/300 = 0.023333 which is less than 0.025 so safe ( if T<0.7).
So instead of calculating every time by 0.7R we can check these limits in other way.
If our limit is 0.025 then the limit we get is 0.025/R/0.7. Assume R=3.5. Now the values in ETABS are
inverse so our limit is 0.7×3.5/0.025 = 98.
In ETABS the drift is reported as 1/x where x is some number. Now as long as x (some number) isgreater
than 98 our limit of 0.025 x story ht is being satisfied. This way you can quickly check and compare
seismic drifts.

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
/image014-767463.jpg)
Now for the wind drifts, goto Display>Show tables, select Point displacements>Story drifts and then
select only drift combinations for results. Click on and then copy the table to EXCEL.

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
/image016-769385.jpg)

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
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4 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07
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To save time you can right click on EXCEL taskbar and select maximum and minimum. Then just select
the column H or I and see the maximum value that should be less than H/400 to H600 limit (0.0025 t0
0.00167). Again the values reported in ETABS are divided by story ht.

(hĴp://waseemrana8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/image022-773193.jpg)
4) Controlling Excessive Drift Values

sometimes you may face problem of excessively large values in drift tables in ETABS. Well we are not
going to talk about different measures and modeling techniques to control the drift values. We are going
to talk about large numbers in drift tables. Sometimes it happens that a point or node is free in the
model or is connected to a NULL line or very flexible section. Drift tables for example the story drift
table in wind captures the maximum displaced points. Obviously the displacement of several meters in
tables is not what we are looking for. Drift values (relative) may be still okay for these points, but it
requires you to check the displacement values too before checking directly the drift. Unlock the model
and remove all free points, check for any discontinuity and modify your models to remove all the errors.
ranawaseem.com

5 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

15 comments

1. wiki
December 6, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Reply
salam sir in MAXIMUM LIMITS portion should DeltaM be less than .025 times story height or Dela s
be less than 0.025 times story height?as in the refrence you qouted above says that story drift using
DeltaM should be less than .025 times s.height.it is not the Delta M limit sir

2. Rana Waseem
December 6, 2012 at 10:28 PM
Reply
Wikki! I didnt understand your point.. According to code, the DRIFT calculated using DELTA m
should be less than 0.025 story height…

3. wiki
December 8, 2012 at 4:44 PM
Reply
drift is delta s and limit of drift is .025.it is not the limit of delta m as u used in above calculations
ʺdelta M = 0.7 x 3.5 x 1/105 = 7/300 = 0.023333 which is less than 0.025 so safeʺ

4. Rana Waseem
December 8, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Reply
Dear wiki! Its mentioned in the referenced code that drift should be calculated using delta M and
drift limit using delta M should be less than 0.025…If my understanding to the code is wrong then
please explain to me…we should not use delta s…delta s is the value we get from ETABS. We have to
make it delta M

5. Samer Kamel
February 5, 2013 at 6:34 AM
Reply
when calculating the distance of separation between the buildings according to UBC 1633.2.11 do we
use also delta M because it gives a very large values. for ex. it give me a 20 cm between the building

6 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

which is not logic

6. thanvi
February 25, 2013 at 11:26 AM
Reply
Greetings Mr. Waseem! Your understanding of calculating Delta M and its limit of 0.025 for T < 0.7 is
correct and Wiki is wrong. it is evident from the code as well.

7. Rana Waseem
February 25, 2013 at 11:43 AM
Reply
yes samer kamel, we do use value of delta m while calculating separation gap…separation gap is [
(delta M1)² + (delta M2)² ] ^ 1/2

8. wiki
May 19, 2013 at 4:10 PM
Reply
thanx sir rana i again read the article got what i missed,mr.thanvi i am student and trying to get the
concept and also trying to clear my confusion i did not said that sir rana is wrong.

9. Charles Maxino
May 29, 2013 at 1:02 AM
Reply
wonderful article, i have some question to asks…1) is the drift per level reported by etabs already the
interstory drift or is the drift relative to the base? If it is relative to the base then we still have to
subtract the two adjacent drifts per floor in order to get the interstory drift. 2) Is the drift reported by
etabs is the displacement at the center of mass or it is the max drift of a particular floor considering
node displacement. I asked this because the specific requirement of the calculation of seismic drift as
per ASCE-05 is that the drift to be considered should be at the center of mass. I have been working
with Midas Gen and this drift calculation is automatic you just have to set the limits for both seismic
and wind drifts and the program will just automatically calculate the drift requirement and it will
show a remark of ok and fail and you also have the option to calculate the drift at the center of mass
or the maximum displacement that will normally occur around the perimeter node.

10. Charles Maxino


May 29, 2013 at 5:54 AM
Reply
In my office we strictly follow all the code provisions specially the requirements for drift. For seismic
drift we are not using only EQX and EQY but instead we used EQX(or EQY)+5%Ecc*Ax. The codes
UBC 97 and ASCE require to include not only the translational displacement but also torsional
displacement. So the correct load to check for the drift must be the static seismic load plus the 5%
accidental torsion multiplied by the torsional amplification factor Ax.

11. Rana Waseem


May 29, 2013 at 6:57 AM
Reply
1) it depends in ETABS output..you can either select total displacement relative to base and subtract
the displacements for the lower stories to get inter-story drift2) again refer to step 1…all output
options are there in ETABS . you can select whatever you want to report…3) like midas gen now in
new etabs 2013 there is beĴer option to control and report drifts..

7 of 9 11-Nov-14 9:02 AM
Building Drifts in ETABS | My Passion for Structural Engineering http://waseemrana.com/2012/07/15/building-drifts-in-etabs/

12. Rana Waseem


May 29, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Reply
yeah the provisions should be followed strictly..good practiceactually in ETABS when defining load
cases…5% Ecc is already included so you dont have to include it again. For irregularities and
torsional amplification..yes you have to check it manually as ETABS is just an anlysis package..rest is
upon engineer..

13. Charles Maxino


June 1, 2013 at 11:32 AM
Reply
There are some functionalities in Midas Gen which are not present yet in ETABS but I donʹt know
about the latest version of ETABS which is version 2013. One of them is the automatic calculation of
torsional amplification factor Ax aside from the automatic calculation of vertical and horizontal
irregularities. The one function for us that is very essential is the automatic calculation of story shear
force ratio I donʹt know if ETABS has this function already.

14. Mohamed Abushady


October 21, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Reply
very good article

15. Rana Waseem


October 21, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Reply
thank you! Mohammed!

/ Modelling

Load combinations for ETABS & SAFE

Updated on 24.10.2013 for drift service combinations Generating automatic load combinations in SAFE
& ETABS is easy but if your building bears other loads like hydrostatic and surcharge pressure or fluid
pressure and temperature loading, unfortunately you have to create

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