Question

Circular plan offer better seismic resistance.

(a) True

(b) False

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Asked question is from Circular, Semicircular, Hexagonal & Half Hexagonal Rooms topic in portion Methods of Building Estimate & Estimate of Building of Civil Engineering Drawing

Answer 1

Right answer is (a) True

Easiest explanation: Considering a rectangular plan, and assuming the lateral load in one direction, its clear that only the two walls in the direction of the force would more or less contribute to the stiffness and thus the seismic resistance. However, in a circular plan, every part of the wall would have some component in the direction of the seismic load. Also, instead of the regular X-shaped cracks (on account of in-plane shear in load bearing walls), a circular plan would experience a parabolic failure pattern, and that could possibly also be a reason for the increased seismic resilience.