Evaluating the inelastic displacement ratios of moment-resisting steel frames designed according to the Egyptian code

Seismic codes estimate the maximum displacements of building structures under the design-basis earthquakes by amplifying the elastic displacements under the reduced seismic design forces with a deflection amplification factor (DAF). The value of DAF is often estimated as ρ × R, where R is the force reduction factor and ρ is the inelastic displacement ratio that accounts for the inelastic action of the structure according to the definition presented by FEMA P695. The purpose of this study is to estimate the ρ-ratio of moment resisting steel frames (MRSFs) designed according to the Egyptian code. This is achieved by conducting a series of elastic and inelastic time-history analyses by two sets of earthquakes on four MRSFs designed according to the Egyptian code and having 2, 4, 8 and 12 stories. The earthquakes are scaled to produce maximum story drift ratios (MSDRs) of 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% and 2.5%. The mean values of the ρ-ratio are calculated based on the displacement responses of the investigated frames. The results obtained in this study indicate that the consideration of ρ for both the roof drift ratios (RDRs) and the MSDRs equal to 1.0 is a reasonable estimation for MRSFs designed according to the Egyptian code.