Quantifying panel zone effect on deflection amplification factor

Abstract

SummaryDrift is a dominant feature in tall‐building design and can dictate the selection of structural systems. Because a reliable estimate of actual drifts is crucial for controlling structural damage, estimating drift considering intricate details seems noteworthy. In order to estimate story drifts during massive quakes, seismic design provisions generally specify a deflection amplification factor (Cd) to amplify elastic design drifts. In most of these codes, the amount of Cd is calculated from line‐element models without considering panel zone effects, despite the panel zone intensifying the story drift considerably. Therefore, the effect of panel zone on the story drift and Cd has been investigated in the current paper. Because Cd is independent of the number of stories, 4‐story frames, as benchmarks for special steel moment frames, with different thicknesses of the panel zone, are used. The effect of panel zone is provided as a correction factor for Cd. The results show that the panel zone should be considered in the analytical models; otherwise, the story drift will be underestimated up to 35%. Finally, a relation has been derived to consider panel zone effects on Cd, as a function of the panel zone thickness.