Effects of Vertical Irregularity in Steel Braced Frames on Response to Earthquake

Abstract

This paper deals with the irregular profile of braced steel frame building in vertical direction with shear link bracing systems. The underlying fact of the paper is the effect of seismic force in braced frames with different types of irregularities including mass irregularity, mass discontinuity and overhanging mass. For each successive model, the position of shear link bracings has been fixed to make the study effective. This study has investigated the vulnerable effect of irregular profiles in steel frame buildings. To attain the behavior of each frame, linear time history analysis method has been adopted for the present study. FEMA356 standard has been used here for linear time history analysis. Investigations on different frames exhibit that regular profile with symmetry in mass is more efficient while using overhanging mass is detrimental considering the time dependent displacements and accelerations.