Story-Based Stability of Multistory Steel Semibraced and Unbraced Frames with Semirigid Connections
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 1
Abstract
A simplified method is proposed for evaluating the stability of multistory, steel, semibraced, and unbraced frames with semirigid connections. The proposed method decomposes a frame into individual stories and evaluates the lateral stiffness of each story via the story-based stability approach with explicit, closed-form solutions. Lateral sway instability occurs when the lateral stiffness of any story diminishes to zero, and the story for which this occurs can be considered the weakest story in the frame. The results of the proposed method are theoretically verified via comparison to the results of finite-element analyses. The use of the proposed decomposition method requires assuming the buckled shape of the frame, which is shown to provide satisfactory approximations of critical loads for engineering practice. Parametric studies are conducted to assess the sensitivity of the results to the corresponding buckling shape parameters. The assumption of asymmetric buckling, which is generally consistent with the sway buckling mode in semibraced frames, produces reliable results in the proposed decomposition method.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. These include the scripts used to run the numerical examples, all finite-element validation models, and the ABAQUS input files used in the stochastic error analysis.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (RGPIN-203154-2013) for the financial support of this work.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 1 • January 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 21, 2019
Accepted: Aug 15, 2020
Published online: Oct 25, 2020
Published in print: Jan 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Mar 25, 2021
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