The purpose of the paper is to set up a simplified model for nonlinear dynamic analysis of building structures with lateral bracing subjected to horizontal earthquake excitation. In the model, the assumptions of rigid floor diaphrams and no twist moments due to earthquake excitation applied at the building structure are made. Therefore, the three dimensional building structure is reduced to plane frames connected by rigid links at floor levels. Then, strong-column- weak-beam design philosophy is adopted and the inflection points of beams is approximated at the middles of the beams due to horizontal sways of open frames. For the open frame part of building structure, these assumptions could lead to a stick model with only two degrees of freedom for each floor level (one rotation + one horizontal translation). For the part of lateral bracing, only one horizontal translation, which is the same degree of freedom of the stick model, is allowed for each floor level. Since hysteretic loops caused by shear yieldings are stabler than that caused by bucklings of diagonal members in the bracing, eccentric bracing system which can prevent the diagonal members from bucklings is selected in the total model of the paper. Regarding the nonlinear properties of building structures, a bi-linear relationship is assumed for the structural members, and parallel elements are used to simulate the nonlinear properties of the members. A simple example is given to demonstrate the reasonability of the simplified model. Also, adopting the proposed model could slash the computational cost for nonlinear dynamic analysis of building structures.

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the book description
purchase this book (price £60 +P&P)