Improved Seismic Design of Concentrically X-Braced Steel Frames to Eurocode 8

ABSTRACT

Seismic design of concentrically X-braced steel frames to Eurocode 8 entails several difficulties to practitioners, often resulting in excessively heavy structural solutions. The main objective of the research presented in this paper is to propose modifications to the existing provisions of the code aiming to achieve more efficient designs. A number of possible amendments to the European seismic code are examined, concerning the non-dimensional slenderness parameter and the homogenous dissipative behaviour criterion. It is found that the relaxation of the design criteria leads to identical frame behaviour in comparison to frames fully designed to Eurocode 8.

KEYWORDS:

• Concentrically-braced frames
• seismic design
• seismic assessment
• seismic behaviour
• Eurocode 8