Influence of the structural configuration on the seismic response of steel frame structures

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of the in-plan structural layout on the seismic response of symmetric and asymmetric steel frame structures. A five-storey steel frame building was used as reference structure and two different structural systems were employed to represent torsional stiff and torsional flexible structures. Accurate numerical models of the different structures were developed and nonlinear static and dynamic analyses under bi-directional ground motion were carried out. The influences of axial force-bending moment interaction in columns in the two main directions and second order effects were taken into account in the numerical analyses. The results of the numerical investigations on symmetric structures showed that the reduction of the number of moment resisting connections may lead to an increase of the structural damage. Asymmetric variants of the investigated structures were created by assuming different mass eccentricities in each of the two principal directions and extensive parametric studies were performed. For the torsionally flexible building, the influence of ground motion intensity was very strong. A transition from torsionally flexible to torsionally stiff behaviour in the weaker direction of the initially torsionally flexible structure was observed for high-intensity ground motion. A change of the stiffness of the structure in one direction due to high levels of plastic deformations affected the structural response in the orthogonal direction. Torsional effects decreased in case of severe seismic excitations and high levels of plastic deformations. The reduction of torsional effects observed in the elastic range on the stiff side of torsionally stiff buildings may disappear in the inelastic range.