Seismic damage assessment of moment-resisting steel frames.

In designing earthquake resistant structures, the codes of practice assume a monotonic push-over collapse scenario. Equivalent static forces are applied and design is based only on these forces, not taking into account the cyclic effect of the earthquake loads which, in the case of a severe earthquake, almost certainly will cause a number of load reversals in the inelastic range and some level of structural damage is to be expected. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the level of damage experienced by a structure that is designed and detailed according to the Canadian design codes and standards. The investigation included the elastic and inelastic analyses of the structure by the computer program DRAIN-2DX. Ground acceleration records from real earthquakes were used as input. The damage was calculated using an empirical strength deterioration formula suggested in the literature by other researchers. The damage patterns were found to vary from one earthquake record to another. This variation seemed to be the effect of different modes on the structural response. The role of modal participation on the damage patterns has been explained by investigating the response spectra and the Fourier amplitude spectra of roof displacement and base shear histories. The damage distribution changes from uniform to a localised pattern, as the participation of higher modes tends to supersede that of first mode. Parametric analyses have also revealed that a qualitative prediction of where the damage would localise can be made based on the envelope of the maximum elastic interstorey drift ratios.Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1999 .H45. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0550. Adviser: Sudip S. Bhattacharjee. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2000