Response modification factors for steel buckling restrained braced frames designed as per NBCC 2010

This paper evaluates the overstrength, ductility and response modification factors for low to mid-rise Buckling Restrained Braced Frames (BRBFs) designed as per the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) 2010. In addition to nonlinear static pushover analyses, dynamic time history analyses are performed to assess the seismic performance of four-, six-, and eight-story BRBFs. Different bracing configurations, including chevron (inverted-V) and split-X braces, are considered for the building frames with varied frame span lengths of 6m and 8m. The results confirm that the prescribed design values for overstrength and ductility factors provide reasonable estimations of the lower bound for these factors. The response modification factor obtained in this study ranged from 4.8 to 6 for different frames. The results also indicate that the response modification factor decreases with the increase of story height and span length. Moreover, bracing configurations may slightly affect the response modification factor of BRBFs.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author