Pin‐supported walls for enhancing the seismic performance of building structures

TLDR

The retrofit of an eleven‑story steel reinforced concrete frame with pin‑supported walls aims to enhance structural integrity and prevent weak‑story failure. The authors evaluate seismic performance before and after retrofit using nonlinear dynamic analysis of the pin‑supported wall‑frame system. The pin‑supported walls effectively control deformation, preventing weak‑story failure, and enable concentrated energy dissipation, reducing damage to the rest of the structure. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

SUMMARY An application of a pin‐supported wall‐frame system in retrofitting an eleven‐story steel reinforced concrete frame is introduced. The retrofit aims at enhancing integrity and avoiding weak story failure in an existing moment‐resisting frame. Seismic performance of the building before and after the retrofit is assessed through nonlinear dynamic analysis. The results show that the pin‐supported walls are effective in controlling the deformation pattern of the ductile frame and hence in avoiding weak story failure. With the well‐controlled deformation pattern, carefully arranged energy dissipating devices are able to concentrate energy dissipations so that damage to the rest of the structure can be significantly reduced. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.