Behavior of Steel Joist Girder Structures with PR Column Bases

Little guidance is provided by current building codes for the seismic design of one-story, frame-type industrial buildings. This paper describes tests and companion analytical studies on the behavior of a full-scale, one-bay, two-frame joist girder structure aimed at developing seismic design guidelines for joist girder frames. Two issues are highlighted: the use of a capacity approach for seismic design and the influence of both the girder-to-column and column base-to-foundation connections on the seismic performance of these structures. The cyclic test results indicated that the beam-to-column connections can be considered as rigid when properly detailed and that a simplified model based on the 'component method' approach can provide good estimates for both column base stiffness and strength. The companion analytical studies with different column base fixity indicated that the roof drift decreased and base shear increased appreciably when the effect of the column base fixity was accurately modeled. Finally, a practical method that considers the effects of column base fixity and a modified column base design procedure are described.