Seismic performance assessment of multi-story steel frames with curved dampers and semi-rigid connections

Curved steel damper is an innovative energy dissipation device for seismic application. The performance of the curved steel damper has been well studied and experimentally tested. In addition, the behavior of one story curved damper semi-rigid frame (CDSRMF) has been studied extensively. In this study, the seismic performance of multi-story (3 story, 6 story and 9 story) CDSRMFs are extensively examined using nonlinear static (pushover analysis) and nonlinear dynamic analysis. The results show that the addition of the curved damper has significantly improved the stiffness, strengths and energy dissipation of the CDSRMFs. The formation and distribution of plastic hinges in CDSRMFs show that the significant part of nonlinear deformations is concentrated in curved damper elements instead of the primary elements. The curved damper can be used as a robust structural fuse which can be efficiently inspected and replaced as needed. The results demonstrate that multistory CDSRMF can be used as a reliable and resilient seismic force resisting systems.