Seismic response of self-centering prestressed concrete moment resisting frames with web friction devices

●Seismic response of novel self-centering (SC) concrete frames is examined.●SC frames have less beam end rotations than RC frames.●SC frames have larger column plastic rotations than RC frames.●SC frames are more sensitive to form a soft story than RC frames.●SC frames have less damage than RC frames after the aftershock.

This paper examines the seismic response of self-centering prestressed concrete moment resisting frames (SCPC-MRFs) with web friction devices. Nonlinear dynamic analyses under ground motion ensembles corresponding to two seismic hazard levels are performed. The results of SCPC-MRFs are compared with those of monolithic reinforced concrete (RC) MRFs in terms of global and local responses. Seismic analyses results show that SCPC-MRFs generally experience similar peak story drifts, less beam end rotations, and much smaller residual deformations as compared with those of RC-MRFs. However, it is also found that SCPC-MRFs sustained larger column plastic rotations than RC-MRFs and are more sensitive to the formation of a soft story. In general, the 8-story SCPC-MRFs show better seismic performances than the 4-story ones. Mainshock–aftershock analyses show that the incremental effect of aftershock on damage extent is much smaller for the SCPC-MRFs than for the RC-MRFs.