Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Improved Rocking Concentrically Braced-frames with Zipper Columns

Concentrically braced frames (CBFs) as one of well-known stiff and common lateral force resisting systems often show limited ductility capacity under severe earthquakes. This study proposes rocking zipper braced frame (RZBF) to improve the drift capacity of CBFs which is based on combination of rocking behavior and zipper columns. In the RZBF system, rocking behavior permit the braced frame to uplift during the earthquake and then restoring force induced through post-tensioned bars self-center the frame to its initial state. Also, zipper columns can decrease the concentration of damage by distributing the unbalance force at the mid bay over the frame’s height. To assess the performance of RZBF, a comparison study is carried out considering CBF, rocking concentrically braced frame, zipper braced frame and RZBF. For this purpose, some frames structures are designed and nonlinear time history analysis conduct under a set of earthquake records. Seismic responses such as roof drift ratio, gap opening at the column-base interface, forces of top story braces and post-tensioned bars are taken into consideration. The results show that the proposed RZBF has better performance among the others and zipper columns can improve the behavior of rocking systems.