Study on the influence of stiffness of beam-column connections on the seismic behavior of composite moment resisting frames

In the design of steel or composite structures, the connections are usually considered infinitely rigid or perfectly pinned. However, the real behavior of these connections is semi-rigid. Consequently, this semi-rigidity can influence the overall behavior of the composite structures, especially the moment-resisting frames. Seismically, the most critical parameter that characterizes the frames behavior is the response factor R. In this context, the research work consists of studying the semi-rigidity effect of the connections on the behavior of the composite frames by evaluating the response modification factor R by using the Pushover method. To accomplish this task, three types of portal frames of 3, 4 and 5 storeys were analyzed for different degrees of connection (beam-column). An easy and practical solution has been proposed to determine the approximate value of the coefficient behavior R for the composite frames with semi-rigid connections.