A parametric study of steel and composite semi-rigid portal frames

This paper presents a semi-rigid low-rise portal frame parametric analysis. The analysis considered parameters like: connection stiffness and strength, structural system (steel or composite) and lateral frame stability. The parametric analysis, based on the Eurocode 3, lead to the development of a simple design model implemented on the ANSYS finite element program. The model has taken into account geometrical and material non-linearities and the connection semirigid behaviour. The investigation results are presented and discussed in order to access economic potential and efficiency of the semi-rigid solutions.