Response Modification Factor of Steel Frames with and Without Dampers

Abstract

Response modification factor (R) performs as one of the main seismic design parameters of new structures during earthquake and is considered as significant parameter of nonlinear equivalent static analysis which is a widely used method to evaluate the seismic response of a structure. A review of the literature illustrates that although various numerical studies have investigated the effect of viscous dampers on the response modification factor (R), lack of experimental study has been conducted to verify the numerical models. This study evaluates the response modification factor of steel frame with and without viscous damper. Experimental and numerical analysis have been conducted in the present research. It is found that results from finite element analysis agree well with the experimental results. Besides, the use of damper increases significantly the response modification factors of steel structures, e.g., the factor of structures with dampers are approximate 32% higher than the structures without dampers. The determined response modification factors for the different structures used in this study can be applied to conduct equivalent static analysis of buildings as an initial design stage.