Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) represent an effective strategy for the seismic retrofit of existing steel moment resisting frames (MRFs), as they contribute to increasing the strength and ductility capacity of the structure. However, current design strategies do not provide recommendations on how the performance increase is achieved. Prioritising either the increase of strength or ductility capacity has an impact on the damage evolution and affects the overall performance of the structure. A low increase of strength typically requires larger exploitation of the ductility capacity (i.e., damage) of the existing structure, while a high increase of strength produces a significant increase of stiffness, which is often accompanied by an increase of the seismic demands that may limit the effectiveness of the retrofitting solution. The present study assesses the impact of these decisions on the overall performance of steel MRFs retrofitted with BRBs. For this purpose, two MRFs with several BRB retrofitting configurations are used as case study structures. Finite Element Models are built in OpenSees and assessed through Incremental Dynamic Analyses to account for the record‐to‐record variability. Fragility relationships are derived based on local Engineering Demand Parameters (EDPs) to describe structural and non‐structural damage, as well as path‐dependent damage indicators (i.e., residual drifts and cumulative ductility in BRBs). A comparison of the overall performance of the structures is carried out in terms of risk estimates for a high seismicity location.
Existing steel moment-resisting frames in several seismic regions worldwide are often characterised by high vulnerability to earthquakes due to insufficient local and/or global ductility. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to assess their response under strong motions and provide cost-effective retrofitting remedies. However, the current code-based assessment framework utilized in Europe for assessing existing structures is inadequate and requires improvement, especially to account for the contribution of masonry infills as they significantly influence the seismic response of steel buildings. To this end, the H2020-INFRAIA-SERA project HITFRAMES (i.e., HybrId Testing of an Existing Steel Frame with Infills under Multiple EarthquakeS) aims at experimental evaluation of a case study building representative of nonseismically designed European steel frames. This paper presents the dynamic response analyses of the case study building and serves as a theoretical prediction of the experimental results for HITFRAMES. The case study building is analysed as a bare, an infilled and a retrofitted frame with buckling restrained braces (BRBs), respectively. It is subjected to the natural seismic sequence recorded during the 2016-2017 Central Italy earthquakes. The modal properties of the case study building are determined first, followed by the investigation of its non-linear dynamic response. The dynamic tests are performed with the earthquake records scaled to different intensity levels to simulate the structural performance under different limit states according to Eurocode 8-Part 3. The impact of masonry infills and BRB-retrofit is also investigated by comparing the response of models with different configurations. It can be concluded that appropriately-designed BRBs are effective in protecting steel frames from experiencing critical damage during earthquakes and reducing significantly the transient and residual drift.
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