Building Height Limits for Steel Intermediate Moment Frames

Steel intermediate moment frames (IMF) have been widely used as a seismic force resisting system in regions of low and moderate seismicity. In this study, the seismic collapse performance of the steel IMFs designed according to current seismic code was evaluated. For this purpose, 25 steel IMFs were designed according to seismic design codes (ASCE 7-10, AISC 341-10, and AISC 360-10), and the probability of collapse for these frames was estimated. The probability of collapse of steel IMFs became larger with an increase in the height of the frames. Based on the results, this study investigated the validity of height limits for steel IMFs specified in ASCE 7-10 and proposed limits to guarantee satisfactory seismic collapse performance.