The influence of hinged and rigid connections on the seismic behaviour of “Inverted Y” bracing systems

The present paper intends to illustrate the seismic behaviour of different configurations for a ten storeyed “inverted Y” eccentrically braced frame provided with rigid and/or pined beam/column and diagonal/column connections. Four configurations were analysed for the “inverted Y” braced frame, sized for the forces produced by the same code seismic base shear force. In the first configuration, rigid connections were used for all kind of structural elements. The second configuration had hinged beam/column and diagonal/column connections. In case of the third configuration, rigid connections were used among all kind of structural elements and additional potentially plastic zones with reduced cross‐sections (resembling the “dog‐bone” detail) were considered along the girders and braces, near the member ends connected to the columns. The fourth configuration had hinged diagonal/column connections and additional potentially plastic zones were considered only along the frame girders, near the girder ends connected to the columns. The behaviour of each frame configuration during static and dynamic nonlinear analyses was observed. The extreme values for deformations and member forces were compared. The steel consumption was estimated for each of the four considered configurations.