Second-order inelastic dynamic analysis of steel frames using fiber hinge method

This paper presents a simple and effective numerical procedure for the nonlinear inelastic dynamic analysis of steel frames under dynamic loadings which considers both geometric and material nonlinearities. The geometric nonlinearities are included by using stability functions obtained from the exact stability solution of a beam–column subjected to axial force and bending moments. The spread of plasticity over the cross section and along the member length is captured by tracing the uniaxial stress–strain relations of each fiber on the cross-sections located at the integration points along the member length. A computer program utilizing the average acceleration method for the integration scheme is developed to numerically solve the equations of motion. The obtained results are compared with those generated by ABAQUS to illustrate the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the proposed procedure.

Research highlights
► A fiber element is proposed for nonlinear inelastic dynamic analysis of frames.
► A computer program is developed for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of frames.
► The proposed program is proved to be an efficient tool for frame analysis.