Abstract: Due to urbanisation and space occupancy issues, soft storey architecture is a common characteristic in high rise buildings or multi-story buildings. Due to their soft storeys, these measures cause the lateral load resisting system's stiffness to decrease, making a progressive collapse in a powerful earthquake inevitable for such structures. Damage and collapse are frequently seen in soft story buildings during earthquakes because this storey level contains concrete columns that were unable to offer appropriate shear resistance. The current study is primarily concerned with examining how a soft storey affects a structure's behaviour. The current work uses dynamic analysis to examine several positions for a soft storey within a multi-story building. In a multi-story building with lateral loads from an earthquake, the building's performance is assessed at various levels by taking into account the bare frame, bracings, shear walls, and composite column. The  response spectrum analysis techniques described in the code practice are used to evaluate the lateral load analysis caused by seismic action. ETABS software is used to carry out these structural analyses. To evaluate the performance of the soft storey in the multi-story building, ETABS software is used to track variables such storey displacement, storey drift, storey shear, and time period. The study is carried out by considering a G+15 RC multistoried building. Ultimately, based on the findings, recommendations are made regarding the suitability of various configuration.

Keywords: ETABS, storey shear, time period, storey displacement, soft storey.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2023.10821