The design and evaluation of seismic performance of high level of ductile rigid frames

This study is an attempt to investigate the effects of different ground motion sets on the structural response of steel special moment frames. Three ground motion sets are used which consist; near fault records with velocity pulses, near fault records without velocity pulses and far field records. The records of each set are scaled in order that their average spectrum approaches to the uniform hazard (design response) spectrum by following the rules provided in ASCE/SEI 07-10. The model frame is a component of lateral load resisting system of a ten story office building which is designed according to the Load and Resistance Factor Design of the ANSI/AISC 360-10. Applied capacity based design principles for providing global ductility are along with ANSI/AISC 341-10. The loads and load combinations are compatible with ASCE/SEI 7-10. The cross section and material properties are all compatible with USA codes. The seismic performance assessment of the model frame is carried out under the effect of above mentioned record sets via Nonlinear Dynamic Procedure (NDP) of ASCE/SEI 41-06 with the use of software PERFORM-3D. All of the structural elements' displacements and related member forces are post processed for each record during this assessment. According to the results of the analyses, use of different record sets with distinctive characteristics do not affect the structural response much, in terms of satisfied seismic performance levels and mean values of the maximum story drift ratios. However, the dispersion of the story drift ratios are considerably higher for the near fault records with velocity pulses which can be attributed to the higher structural inelastic activity.