Modified fish-bone model: A simplified MDOF model for simulation of seismic responses of moment resisting frames

• A simplified MDOF model is proposed via modification of fish-bone model.
• The reliability of the proposed model is evaluated through 3 building model and 94 ground motions.
• The bias and precision of the proposed model is compared with three different equivalent models.

This paper presents a simplified Multi-Degree-Of-Freedom (MDOF) model through modification of fish-bone model (or generic frame). Modified Fish-Bone (MFB) model is developed through three enhancements: (i) the moment of inertia for half-beams is reduced slightly to modify the assumption of equal rotation at each story joints, (ii) a number of truss elements are inserted to the fish-bone model to simulate flexural deformation of moment frames due to axial elongation and contraction of columns, and (iii) moment–rotation relationship of representative rotational springs is supposed to be bilinear instead of trilinear in order to consider simultaneous yielding at both ends of the beam in moment frames. The proposed model is evaluated with respect to nonlinear dynamic analysis results of three classic moment resisting frames subjected to 94 records of FEMA-440 ground motion data set. Moreover, the adequacy of this model is compared with the fish-bone model and two predictors of nonlinear seismic demand. The statistical study of predicted interstory drift demonstrates the superiority of the proposed model over the fish-bone model and both seismic demand predictors.