Design proposal and analysis of curved brace system to reduce drift in moment frame structures

Wind and seismic loads cause buildings to shift from their vertical axis of inertia resulting in lateral displacement, also termed as drift. It is extremely crucial to stabilize tall buildings in the event of large lateral load that cause buildings to flex beyond their limit of elasticity, resulting in structural damage that can prove to be fatal. This thesis proposes to study the efficiency of a diagonal curved brace system as an alternate to retrofit existing steel moment frame structures. The study was conducted with a moment frame structure as a base case and how retrofitting the structure with the proposed diagonal curved brace induced better performance in the structure as compared to the performance of the structure when retrofitted with different forms of straight brace systems. Analyses of the proposed system was performed in SAP2000- a finite element analysis software, the mass of steel in the structure has been constant for all retrofit structures in the study. The idea of using a parabolic brace form was obtained from the catenary form used in the design of suspension bridges and the parabolic form used in the design of the Eiffel tower.