Considerations about the determination of g z coefficient Considerações sobre a determinação do coeficiente g z

In this work, the g z coefficient, used to evaluate final second order effects in reinforced concrete structures, is studied. At the start, the influence of the structural model in determination of g z coefficient is evaluated. Next, a comparative analysis of g z and B 2 coefficient, usually employed to evaluate second order effects in steel structures, is performed. In order to develop the study, several reinforced concrete buildings of medium height are analysed using ANSYS-9.0 [1] software. The results show that simplified analysis provide more conservative values of g z . It means that, for structures analysed by simplified models, large values of g z don’t imply, necessarily, in significant second order effects. Furthermore, it was checked that g z can be determinated from B 2 coefficients of each storey of the structures and that, for all the analysed buildings, the average values of the B 2 coefficients are similar to g z .