Comparative Analysis of Steel Buildings With and Without Bracings in Nepal

Abstract

The past few years has seen a remarkable increase in the construction of steel framed buildings in Nepal. This has provided a much-needed architectural relief to urban centers full of RC buildings. The main reasons for this current proclivity towards steel buildings can be attributed to the faster time of erection of steel buildings, its light weight resulting in easier handling and cheaper transportation, and lower material cost. However, because of its flexible nature, an unbraced steel building will have higher storey displacement when compared to the RC buildings. For mid-rise and high-rise buildings, the steel frames need to be equipped with braces to keep the storey drifts and displacements within acceptable limits. This will result in a stiffer building and hence result in increased base shears and bending moments. This change in base shears and storey drifts along with the building’s fundamental time period may not be similar for different positions of braces despite the use of similar bracing sections. This paper aims to find such differences, if any, to aid designers in selecting optimum position for braces while designing steel framed buildings.