Seismic behaviour factor of moment-resisting steel frames involving local buckling effect

This paper is focused on the evaluation of the seismic behaviour factor for moment-resisting steel frames involving local bucking effect, with due consideration to both their ductility and overstrength. Ductility and overstrength play an important role in keeping satisfactory performance of structures during strong earthquake. Firstly, moment-resisting steel frames which are designed according to Chinese seismic code. Based on the combination of non-linear shell element and beam element, inelastic time history has been performed on these steel frames to get the global capacity envelopes. The results show that number of stores and spans have effect on the behaviour factor values. Finally, based on the findings presented in the article, tentative behaviour factor value is proposed for moment-resisting steel frames.