Rigid-Plastic Analysis of Seismic Resistant T-Frame considering Moment-Shear Interaction

Abstract

To select a seismic resistant system, in addition to strength and stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation are important to be considered. Structures have nonlinear behavior under the influence of moderate and strong earthquakes. One of the primary aims in designing seismic resistant structures is to prevent the formation of undesirable collapse mechanisms such as the collapse in only a few storeys of the structure that leads to low energy dissipation. In order to achieve a global collapse mechanism, modern seismic codes provide simple rules for design, which is called the hierarchy criteria. Although these simple criteria could prevent the formation of a soft storey mechanism, they could not lead to an optimal global collapse mechanism. In these mechanisms, the energy dissipation zones include all the yielding zones such as beams, while all other parts of the structure have remained in the elastic range. TRF (T-resisting frame) is an innovative lateral resistant system introduced for architectural reasons and to provide more energy dissipating capability. This system has several collapse mechanisms due to the moment, shear, or moment-shear behavior of its members. In this paper, within the framework of the theory of plastic mechanism control, the rigid-plastic analysis of the TRF system to achieve the desired collapse mechanism is used by considering the moment-shear interaction. According to these analyses, which are performed on a single storey frame, simple hierarchy criteria are developed to create the desired collapse mechanism. Also, these criteria prevent undesired collapse mechanisms in order to have more energy dissipation and more ductility. Finally, the validity of the proposed criteria has been verified by the pushover analysis.