Earthquake performance assessment of braced steel frames

Steel structures are a member of structure group that are widely used by designers. They are designed in order to safely stand in case of different environmental occurences such as fire, wind, snow, and earthquake. Earthquakes are differ from other natural disasters since they have low probalitiy, but their effects are more intense. In this work, analytical study is conducted to evaluate seismic behaviour of special braced frames (SBFs) that have different gusset plate connections. Seven real ground motion records are selected and scaled to meet time history analysis' criteria. In addition, two-dimensional steel frame structure are designed and checked that conforming to recent international provisions. Five different single-bay & story frames are assessed under earthquake excitations through OpenSees software to assess gusset thickness effect on structure responses under earthquake excitation. The study presents effective way of determining gusset sizes in steel structures that resides especially in active seismic areas.