The Optimal Drift Design Method to Control the Elastic and Inelastic Performance of Steel Moment Frames

Abstract

This study presents the optimal drift design method to control the elastic and inelastic performance of steel moment frames. This is formulated as a problem that minimizes the lateral displacement at the top of a building satisfying the constraints on the total structural weight and the column-to-beam strength ratios at the joints. This uses the resizing method based on the linear static analysis. The resizing method can increase the stiffness of buildings without the increase of structural weight because of resizing the size of elements based on the displacement participation factor (DPF) calculated by the unit-load method. Simultaneously, this can control the inelastic performance of a building through the constraints on the column-to-beam strength ratios at the joints. The proposed method is demonstrated by application to the steel moment frame example. It is confirmed that the initial stiffness and dissipated energy of the redesigned structure are controlled.