Assesment of Seismic Performance of Eccentrically Braced Frame with Vertical Members

This paper evaluates comprehensively seismic inelastic demand of eccentrically braced frames (EBFs) with vertical members. In this configuration, two zipper-struts are added to connect each end-point of the shear links in all stories. To investigate the efficiency of this system versus conventional EBFs, pushover and incremental dynamic analyses were performed. Results show that in this system, the fully-plastic hinges are almost simultaneously developed in all stories while damage in a conventional EBF concentrates only in a few floors. Moreover, the ductility and energy absorption capacity of this configuration are noticeably higher than those of the conventional EBFs.