Vibration of High-rise Buildings: A Case Study of Unity Hall, KNUST

If the maximum displacement of a high-rise building is known before hand, building experts can run simulations on the building to know the safest amount of load to use on each slab construction that can minimize cost, and yet provide the needed resistance it is designed for. Under free vibration and live load absent, displacement values fall below 0.5m which shows that the model maintains its linearity under free vibration. However, when live load is present, all displacement values fall below 1.6m, showing that the presence of live load reduces linearity of the model under free vibration. Under forced vibration, our model maintains its linearity up to an earthquake of magnitude 1.0 when live load is absent and 1.25 when live load is present. This also confirms that, the presence of students has some effect on the linearity of the model under forced vibration. Above the stipulated magnitudes of 1.0 and 1.25 when live load is absent and present respectively, displacements exceed 0.5m and 1.6m.

Derick Folson received his BSc. Computer Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (2004), and his MSc. Mathematics from the same university (2009). He authored My Handbook of Ashanti Proverbs, Mathematics for Junior High Schools, Elective Mathematics for Senior High Schools.