Seismic design of chevron braces cupled with MRF fail safe systems

In this paper, the Theory of Plastic Mechanism Control (TPMC) is applied to the seismic design of dual systems composed by moment-resisting frames and Chevron braced frames. The application of TPMC is aimed at the design of dual systems able to guarantee, under seismic horizontal forces, the development of a collapse mechanism of global type. This design goal is of primary importance in seismic design of structures, because partial failure modes and soft-storey mechanisms have to be absolutely prevented due to the worsening of the energy dissipation capacity of structures and the resulting increase of the probability of failure during severe ground motions. With reference to the examined structural typology, diagonal and beam sections are assumed to be known quantities, because they are, respectively, designed to withstand the whole seismic actions and to withstand vertical loads and the net downward force resulting from the unbalanced axial forces acting in the diagonals. Conversely column sections are designed to assure the yielding of all the beam ends of moment-frames and the yielding and the buckling of tensile and compressed diagonals of the V-Braced part, respectively. In this work, a detailed designed example dealing with the application of TPMC to moment frame- chevron brace dual systems is provided with reference to an eight storey scheme and the design procedure is validated by means of non-linear static analyses aimed to check the actual pattern of yielding. The results of push-over analyses are compared with those obtained for the dual system designed according to Eurocode 8 provisions