Study Performance of Floating Columns Subjected to Vertical Loads

Abstract

In many cases, we need large areas in the building that are free of columns, especially on the lower floors, such as the ground floor and the basement, in order to use them as car parking or otherwise. The load path will change and new terms will appear, including the term "floating column", which is the column above the removed column, and the term “Transfer beam”, which is the beam on which the floating column is based it as a concentrated load and then transfers the loads to the adjacent columns. In this paper, the effect of vertical load on a concrete building containing a floating column has been studied and compared to another one without a floating column. Also, the results of the transfer beam were compared in a number of parameters such as moment, shear force, and deflection. A building consisting of G+4 was studied and analyzed using ETABS and Midas programs, A number of results were reached, the most important is the concept of load path redistribution, also this paper concluded that in normal buildings case all beams have an approximately equal result of bending, shear, and deflection but in floating column building the beams above the transfer beam have different values which decrease when going upward.