Parametric studies of seismic behavior of steel frames equipped with yielding elements

Yielding elements (YE) are among those devices that not only help control structural damages, but make better seismic behavior by concentrating the frames in some removable part of the structures. YE are located at the intersection of Concentric Braced Frame (CBF) in a rectangular shape. In this paper, Seismic behavior of the frames with YE will be investigated. For this reason, 5 braced steel frames with different stories (3, 5, 7, 10 and 15) equipped with yielding elements and diverse opening percentages (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50) are modeled in the Opensees software. At first, through a linear static analysis, the stiffness of these frames is investigated, taking into account changes in the size of the YE and the increasing height of the frames. Subsequently, through some nonlinear dynamic analysis, an attempt is made to investigate their seismic behaviors including stiffness and resistance in different records of earthquake. Finally, the R factor of those optimized frames is calculated. The results show the efficiency of these elements in making a better seismic behavior.