Comparative analysis of dual steel frames with dissipative metal shear panels

This paper deals with the seismic response of dual steel frames with and without dissipative metal shear panels. The main goal is to define possible design criteria, for the seismic protection of new and existing buildings, accounting for the main behavioral peculiarities of metal shear panels.To this purpose, based on a large number of historical records that are selected in order to match the main interesting frequencies, Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDAs) are carried out on two steel frames. These frames have been first designed in order to satisfy specific performances. Then, they have been improved by imposing stricter design goals that have been complied with the application of dissipative metal shear panels.The obtained outcomes highlight that metal shear panels allow to control properly the collapse mechanisms of the frames. Moreover, they can lead to significant increases of collapse accelerations and to a general reduction of both the permanent and the transient story drifts. The paper concludes with the evaluation of the equivalent q-behaviour factor of both the protected and the un-protected frames. As it could be expected, the most effective shear panels are able to produce stronger increase of behavior factors (up to 150%), due to the larger dissipative capacity of the whole structure.