Drift Design Method of Steel Moment Frames by using Column-Beam Strength Ratios and Unit-Load Method

Abstract

This paper presents the resizing method of columns and beams that considers column-to-beam strength ratios to simultaneously control the initial stiffness and ductility of steel moment frames. The proposed method minimizes the top-floor displacement of a structure while satisfying the constraint conditions with respect to the total structural weight and column-to-beam strength ratios. The design variable considered in this method is the sectional area of structural members, and the sequential quadratic programming(SQP) technique is used to obtain optimal results from the problem formulation. The unit load method is applied to determine the displacement participation factor of each member for the top floor lateral displacement; based on this, the sectional area of each member undergoes a resizing process to minimize the top-floor lateral displacement. Resizing members by using the displacement participation factor of each member leads to increasing the initial stiffness of the structure. Additionally, the proposed method enables the ductility control of a structure by adjusting the column-to-beam strength ratio. The applicability of the proposed optimal drift design method is validated by applying it to the steel moment frame example. As a result, it is confirmed that the initial stiffness and ductility could be controlled by the proposed method without the repetitive structural analysis and the increment of structural weights.