The scope of this study is the quantification of vertical peak floor acceleration demands at column lines and along the length of beams of elastic moment-resisting steel frames subjected to recorded ground motions. These demands correlate with the maximum strength demands on rigid nonstructural components attached to a frame structure. Since it is commonly assumed that buildings behave flexibly in the horizontal direction and rigidly in the vertical direction, the assessment of vertical acceleration demands is typically not considered in most cases. The results of this study show that vertical peak floor accelerations can be up to five times larger than the vertical peak ground acceleration, in contrast to horizontal peak floor accelerations that are only up to two times larger than the horizontal peak ground acceleration for the numerical models used in this study. The most significant amplifications estimated in the vertical direction are found at the center of the girders. Further investigations of modified steel frames indicate that the story-wise mass distribution has an influence not only on the vertical acceleration demand, but also on the horizontal component of the response, though to a lesser degree. In contrast, the response in the vertical and horizontal direction is only slightly affected by an increase in the flexural stiffness of the beams. The results of this study strongly indicate that in steel frames it can be considered highly questionable to ignore the amplification of the vertical acceleration component along the height of the structure.

Im Rahmen einer Fallstudie befasst sich dieser Aufsatz mit der Auswirkung unterschiedlicher Dämpfungsansätze auf die berechnete Beschleunigungsantwort eines ebenen, regelmäßigen elastischen Stahlrahmens unter Erdbebenanregung. Es wird dabei nicht nur, so wie im Erdbebeningenieurwesen üblich, die Vergrößerung der horizontalen Bodenbeschleunigung betrachtet, sondern zusätzlich auch die Vergrößerung der vertikalen Bodenbeschleunigung. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass bei der Verwendung von Rayleigh‐Dämpfung gemäß der ingenieurmäßigen und wissenschaftlichen Praxis die vertikale Bodenbeschleunigung rechnerisch nur sehr wenig vergrößert wird, da die vertikalen Moden zu stark gedämpft werden. Das erklärt die bisherige Annahme, dass die Vergrößerung der vertikalen Beschleunigung vernachlässigbar ist. Im Gegensatz dazu wird mit Rayleigh‐Dämpfung auf Grundlage der effektiven vertikalen Massenpartizipation sowohl die horizontale als auch die vertikale Tragwerksbeschleunigung überschätzt. Die Implementierung der inhärenten Dämpfung im Rechenmodell in Form von modaler Dämpfung führt hingegen zu einer realistischen rechnerischen Vorhersage der Beschleunigungsantwort in beiden Richtungen.

This study addresses the modeling of different energy dissipation mechanisms for numerical prediction of the vertical acceleration demand in regular moment-resisting steel frame structures. One of the issues discussed is the consideration of viscous damping in the structural model. It is shown that well-established Rayleigh-damping may highly overestimate the damping of the vertical modes, resulting in much too low vertical acceleration response predictions. A study with different damping models provides an appropriate damping modeling strategy that leads to reasonable predictions of both horizontal and vertical frame acceleration demands. Another open question is the effect of inelastic material behavior on the vertical acceleration demand on the considered regular structures. The results of a shell model of a frame structure exposed to high intensity ground motion excitation demonstrate that inelastic material behavior has virtually no impact on the vertical acceleration demand, while structural inelasticity leaves the horizontal acceleration response significantly smaller compared to the elastic demand. This leads to the conclusion that common frame models that capture the inelastic horizontal response but behave elastic in the vertical direction are suitable for the computation of both the horizontal and vertical acceleration demand.

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