Evaluation of Earthquake Resistance of Steel Moment Resisting Frames

Proper evaluation of the energy dissipation capacity of a structure, along with proper assessment of inputs, is an important basis of energy-based seismic design. Earthquake response analysis is a useful tool for establishing and calibrating a design method. The reliability of the design method depends largely on the reliability of the analysis. The reliability of the analysis result improves according with the accuracy of the hysteresis model applied to the analysis. In this study, first, based on the experimental results of cyclic loading tests conducted with various loading condition and loading protocol, and analytical results of numerical study, realistic hysteresis model of steel structural members subjected to cyclic bending under axial force is modeled. Next, to evaluate the ultimate earthquake resistance of steel moment resisting frames (MRFs), some series of response analyses of steel MRFs adopted to the proposed hysteresis model are conducted. From the analysis results, the effects of various parameters related to the MRFs, such as the deformation capacity of the column determined by local buckling, the elastic stiffness and strength of the column base, on the ultimate earthquake resistance of the steel MRFs are evaluated. Furthermore, seismic performance of MRFs under multiple strong excitations are examined.