Case study and Evaluation of two steel bracing systems in the Bam earthquake and methods of retrofitting

Abstract

In the seismically active countries such as Iran, there are many structures that have been designed and constructed in recent years that do not conform to the terms and provisions of the design codes. On 26 December 2003 at 1:57 GMT, the historical city of Bam, located in the south-eastern region of Kerman province in Iran, was shaken by a relatively strong and destructive earthquake. This earthquake clearly demonstrated that combination of relatively rigid load-bearing external brick walls and flexible internal steel columns, existing similarly in most other regions of the country, is quite hazardous. Also the use of steel beams and columns in buildings without observing proper seismic provisions showed no improvement over non-engineering designed buildings. In this research, two steel frame buildings which had been damaged in the bam earthquake were studied. The first building has bracing system in both directions and in the second building the bracing system only exist in one direction fallowed by infilled panel with saddlebag type connection(semi-rigid Khorjini connection) in opposite direction. In both buildings all the standard of criteria 2800 and Seismic provisions are considered. Nonlinear static analysis (Pushovers) and nonlinear time-history analysis are implemented on both structures. After determining the vulnerability of structures, using steel plates and viscous damper, the results show that retrofitted buildings with fluid viscous damper dissipate higher energy in comparison with the buildings retrofitted by the steel plate. Strengthening the existing buildings were investigated and compared with each others through three different methods: 1. replacing relatively strong bracing system with the relatively weaker bracing 2. Strengthening the columns by adding cover steel plates to the columns of building and 3. Global Strengthening bracing and columns system of buildings.