Design of Seismic‐Resistant Friction‐Braced Frames

Abstract

This paper illustrates the design of a ten‐story, single bay, earthquake‐resistant friction‐braced steel frame using a computer‐aided design system called DELIGHT.STRUCT. Linear and nonlinear time history analyses are built into the design procedure itself rather than serving as a check at the end of the design process. The frame's performance is assessed on the basis of its response to gravity loads alone, gravity loads plus a moderate earthquake, and finally gravity loads combined with a rare severe earthquake ground motion. A preliminary analysis is conducted first to find the most active frame performance constraints. The method of feasible directions is employed to solve the constrained optimization problem. Objective functions include minimum volume, minimum dissipated energy and minimum sum of squared story drifts. A sensitivity analysis of frame response for perturbed ground motion and modeling parameters is included.