Reinforced concrete Structures are subjected to temperature changes
daily and seasonal this is besides the live and dead loads applied to
the building the changes in the temperature consequently produce
temperature loads due to their interaction with the surrounding
environment as well as the solar radiation exposure of the building.
Such temperature loadings consequently lead to thermal stresses in most
structural elements. These thermal loads will produce thermal stresses
that can be considered comparable to or sometimes exceed the stresses of
the dead and live loading due to insufficient thermal insulation which
may lead to severe structural elements damage if it is not considered in
the design phase. This paper presents a study of the effect of thermal
loads on multi-story RC. buildings in Saudi Arabia with fixed and hinged
support constraints with and without bracing system under seismic loads
on sloped terrain. RC. buildings have a high vulnerability when designed
on sloped terrains due to the mass and vertical irregularity that will
increase the values of shear forces and torsional moments on the
building. This work attempts to study the building's behavior on sloped
terrain under the effect of thermal loads using ETABS V18.1. Etabs
Models were analyzed to present the effect of thermal loads
concentrating on the displacement, drift, deformations, and base shear.