Seismic response and design of stainless steel frames

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the seismic response and design of stainless steel (SS) frames. The chapter assesses the feasibility of the application of stainless steel for seismic retrofitting of structures, either concentrically-braced frames (CBFs) or moment-resisting frames (MRFs). Inelastic analyses are carried out on a set of multi-storey CBFs and MRFs. The results of both inelastic static (pushovers) and dynamic analyses demonstrate that systems retrofitted with SS exhibit enhanced plastic deformations and excellent energy absorbing capacity. The augmented strain hardening of SS is beneficial to prevent local buckling in steel members in both MRFs and CBFs. The analytical results also demonstrate that when SS is spread within columns, the system over-strength increases by 30% with respect to the carbon-steel benchmark structure. The design over-strength, plastic redistribution, and energy dissipation capacity also increase by the same amount.