Seismic Behavior of Chevron Concentrically Braced Frames with Weak Beam

Concentrically braced frames provide ductility and imparted seismic energy dissipation through yielding of tension braces and buckling of compression braces. In braced frames with chevron configuration, difference of actions in tension and buckled brace results in considerable unbalanced force at brace-beam intersection, which is addressed in modern seismic design provisions. In this paper, effect of flexural capacity of beam to carry this unbalanced force and consequently seismic behavior of braced frame is investigated by finite element analysis. Two-story and four-story chevron braced frames were modeled in ABAQUS software and studied by means of nonlinear cyclic pushover and nonlinear response history analysis methods. Results showed that inadequate flexural strength of the beams reduce lateral stiffness and strength of braced frame significantly as lateral drift increases; therefore, concentration of lateral deformation in one story may cause formation of soft and weak story. Furthermore, seismic behavior of chevron braced frame and two-story X braced frames were compared.