Seismic design and performance of composite frames

In this study, the seismic design and performance of composite steel-concrete frames are discussed. The new Eurocode 4 [EC4, Eurocode No 4. Design of composite steel and concrete structures. European Committee for standardization, 3rd Draft, prEN 1994-1-1:2001, April 2001] and Eurocode 8 [EC8, Eurocode No 8. Design of structures for earthquake resistance. European Committee for standardization, 3rd Draft, prEN 1998-1-1:2001, May 2001], which are currently at a preliminary stage, are employed for the design of six composite steel-concrete frames. The deficiencies of the codes and the clauses that cause difficulties to the designer are discussed. The inelastic static pushover analysis is employed for obtaining the response of the frames, as well as overstrength factors. The evaluation of the response modification factor takes place by performing incremental time-history analysis up to the satisfaction of the yield and collapse limit states, in order to investigate the conservatism of the code. The last purpose of this study is to investigate if elastically designed structures can behave in a dissipative mode.