SEBIDA, KIMBERLY MAE S.
BSCE-3A
Structural irregularities are discontinuities in a building’s mass, stiffness, strength, or
geometry that negatively affect its seismic performance. These irregularities cause uneven
force distribution, leading to increased story drift, torsion, and potential structural failure
during earthquakes. They are classified into vertical irregularities, which involve changes
along the building height such as soft stories, mass, or geometric variations, and horizontal
(plan) irregularities, which involve plan asymmetry, re-entrant corners, and non-parallel
structural systems.
VERTICAL STRUCTURAL IRREGULARITIES
TYPES OF IRREGULARITY
Stiffness Irregularity-Soft Storey
Soft Storey soft storey is one in which the lateral stiffness is less than 70% of that in the
storey above or less than 80% of the average stiffness of the three stories above
Weight (Mass) Irregularity
Mass irregularity shall be considered to exist where the effective mass of any storey is more
than 150% of the effective mass of an adjacent storey. A roof that is lighter than the floor
below need not be considered.
Vertical Geometric Irregularity
Vertical geometric irregularity shall be considered to exist where the horizontal dimension of
the lateral force-resisting system in any storey is more than 130% of that in adjacent storey.
One storey penthouses need not be considered.
In-Plane Discontinuity In Vertical Lateral-Force-Resisting Elements Irregularity
In vertical Lateral-Force-Resisting Element Irregularity An in-plane offset of the lateral load-
resisting elements greater than the length of those elements.
Discontinuity in Capacity-Weak Storey Irregularity
A weak storey is one in which the storey strength is less than 80% of that in the storey above.
The storey strength is the total strength of all seismic-resisting elements sharing the storey for
the direction under considerations.
HORIZONTAL (PLAN) STRUCTURAL IRREGULARITIES
TYPES OF IRREGULARITY
Torsional Irregularity
To be Considered When Diaphragms Are Not Flexible Torsional irregularity shall be
considered to exist when the maximum storey drift computed including accidental torsion, at
one end of the structure transverse to am axis is more than 1.2 times the average of the storey
drifts of the two ends of the structure.
Re-Entrant Corner Irregularity
Plan configurations of a structure and its lateral force resisting system contain re-entrant
corner, where both projections of the structure beyond a re-entrant corner ares greater than
15% of the plan dimension of the structure in the given direction.
Diaphragm Discontinuity Irregularity
Diaphragms with abrupt discontinuities or variations in stiffness, including those having cut-
out or open areas greater than 50% of the gross enclosed area of the diaphgram, or changes in
effective diaphragm stiffness of more than 50% from one storey to the next.
Out-Of-Plane Offsets Irregularity
Discontinuities in lateral force path, such as out-of-plane offsets of the vertical elements.
Non-Parallel Systems Irregularit
The vertical lateral-load-resisting elements are not parallel to or symmetric about the major
orthogonal axes of the lateral force-resisting-systems.