Estimation of Beam Plastic Rotation Demands for Special Moment-Resisting Steel Frames

For the safe seismic design of buildings, it is necessary to predict the plastic deformation demands of the members as well as the story drift ratio. In the present study, a simple method of estimating the beam plastic rotation was developed for special-moment-resisting steel frame structures designed with strong column-weak beam behavior. The proposed method uses elastic analysis rather than nonlinear analysis, which is difficult to use in practice. The beam plastic rotation was directly calculated based on the results of the elastic analysis, addressing the moment redistribution, the column and joint dimensions, the movement of the plastic hinge, the panel zone deformation, the gravity load, and the strain-hardening behavior. In addition, the rocking effect of the braced frame or core wall on the beam plastic rotation was addressed. For verification, the proposed method was applied to a six-story special-moment frame designed with strong column-weak beam behavior. The predicted plastic rotations of the beams were compared with those that were determined via nonlinear analysis. The beam plastic rotations that were predicted using the proposed method correlated well with those that were determined from the nonlinear pushover analysis.