Performance-based Plastic Seismic Design Method Of Steel Moment Resisting Frames

As a more reasonable seismic design concept,the performance-based seismic design theory is a research focus of the seismic design in recent years, and the performance-based plastic seismic design(PBPD) method is a typical one of the performance-based seismic design methods. The performance-based plastic seismic design method uses pre-selected target drift and yield mechanisms as key performance objectives. The design base shear is obtained based on energy-work balance, and the plastic design is performed to detail the frame members and connections in order to achieve the targeted yield mechanism and behavior. Because of considering the inelastic properties of the structure directly, the repeated iteration and evaluation in the design process is unnecessary.This paper reviewed the development process of building structure seismic design theory within about one century, and introduced the seismic design method during each stage; investigated the performance-based plastic seismic design method in detail, the specific design procedures, and the evaluation methods of seismic performance on steel frames. Four steel frames of 12, 10, 8 and 6 stories was designed through PBPD method and traditional design method; the elastic-plastic dynamic analysis and the nonlinear static analysis were carried out by SAP2000 to evaluate those steel frames.The results indicate that: compared to the traditional steel frames, the PBPD frames present the more evenly distributed interstory drift, which indicates that the inelastic activity of PBPD frames is more uniformly distributed along the height of structure than the traditional frames and the PBPD frames display the more desirable seismic performance.