Prediction of local seismic damage in steel moment resisting frames

Steel moment resisting frames (SMRFs) are widely utilized as a lateral load resisting system. Their seismic performance is usually assessed by examining the maximum value of inter-storey drift (MID) of all floors. The accuracy of such assessment is debatable given the wide spread of values of MID at collapse that exist in the literature. In this study, a simplified method to define the failure inter-storey drift for each floor of a SMRF is proposed. The method was validated with the experimental and analytical studies by other researchers. Three- and ten-storey SMRFs were considered to further validate the proposed method. The effects of the vertical and/or horizontal seismic components of five different ground motions on the SMRFs were evaluated using incremental dynamic analysis. The proposed method accurately identified the severely damaged floors of SMRFs.