Seismic Performance for Steel Frames with Different Layouts of Knee Brace

Abstract

Abstract-The different layouts of knee braces will affect the mechanical performance of the structure to some extent. Nevertheless, an extensive review of related literature indicates that the effect of different layouts of knee brace in steel frame structure is not considered. Typical models of multi-storey building (six-storey) were set up, whose seismic properties were analyzed (including modal analysis and time-history analysis) by finite element software ABAQUS. The effect of layout of braces to internal force, displacement, energy-dissipating capability was observed through comparison. According to the calculation analysis, it was found that lateral displacement and inner forces of the knee braced frame structure were all changed with different degrees, especially for the layer shear force, the effection was the strongest. The layer shear force decreased greatly when the bracing location was in the midspan compared with the bracing location which was in the sidespan. Thus, it was suggested that the bracing location was preferentially considered to arrange in the midspan of the structure under the precondition of meeting the usable function on the structure.