Evaluation of Performance Levels of Zipper-Braced Frames Using Structural Damage Index

The determination of structural and nonstructural damage under earthquake excitations is usually considered as a key factor in performance-based seismic design (PBSD) methods is In this regard, various damage indices have been developed in recent years to quantitatively estimate structural damage. The aim of this study is to develop a simple method to evaluate performance levels of zipper-braced frame (ZBF) structures by using damage indices based on the results of nonlinear static and dynamic analyses. To this end, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15 story zipper-braced frames (ZBF) are modeled and undergone to twenty different synthetic ground motion records and their damage values have been computed. In dynamic damage analysis procedure, the performance levels of the ZBF models have been computed based on the FEMA-356 standard. Considering the results of the nonlinear dynamic analyses, the correlation between FEMA-356 performance levels and damage indices has been investigated and some simplified formula is presented. On the other side, in static damage analysis approach, by using pushover analysis the performance points of ZBF models have been estimated based on capacity spectrum method (CSM) provided by ATC-40 standard. Then, the correlation between ATC-40 performance levels and some static damage indices has been investigated and some simple equations have been proposed. These relations can be utilized to estimate the performance levels of structures from damage indices. Finally, tables are represented for determination of the structural damage index values for assumed performance levels of the ZBF structures based on static and dynamic damage analysis.