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Steel against earthquake

F.M. Mazzolani
University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT: The use of steelwork for seismic protection purposes is now-a-day a reliable solution whose ef-
fectiveness is proved by the evidence of the catastrophic earthquakes in the World. This aspect is widely illus-
trated in this paper, considering different aspects, from the development of the design methodologies to the
current codification, form the structural typologies to the damage analysis and consequent lessons. Some sig-
nificant examples of seismic resistant buildings, erected in the European earthquake prone Countries during
the last decades, are also illustrated.

1 INTRODUCTION with very limited number of damage and total ab-


sence of collapsed buildings.
From the seismic point of view, Europe can be con-
sidered as subdivided into two main parts. The
northern part is geologically stable and the southern
part around the Mediterranean basin is generally
earthquake prone with different intensities from one
side to another.
The northern Countries use steel and composite
structures more than the southern Countries mainly
for economical reasons, but also for a more consoli-
dated tradition. They design seismic resistant steel
and composite structures just for exportation to the
earthquake prone Countries of the third World. Figure 1. The global collapse of a r.c. building.
Contrary, the southern Countries are less rich
than the northern ones and they traditionally use This evidence is going to produce a slow, but con-
both masonry and reinforced concrete as the most tinuous, increase of the use of steelwork in seismic
common constructional materials. resistant structures also in south Europe (Mazzolani
The lesson learned in the last decades from the & Gioncu, 2000).
more severe earthquakes in south Europe (Friuli – In fact, steel structures have been always consid-
Italy, 1976; Bucarest – Romania, 1977; Campania ered as a suitable solution for constructions in high
and Basilicata – Italy, 1980; Banat – Romania, 1991; seismicity areas, due to the very good strength and
Erzincan – Turkey, 1992; Dinar – Turkey, 1995; ductility exhibited by the structural material, the
Umbria – Italy, 1997; Adana – Turkey, 1998; Izmit high quality assurance guaranteed by the industrial
and Duzce – Turkey, 1999; Athens – Greece, 1999) production of steel shapes and plates and the reli-
have shown that the behaviour of reinforced con- ability of connections built up both in workshop and
crete structures, which are the majority there, has in field (Mazzolani & Piluso, 1996). In spite of these
been generally very poor for many unquestionable natural advantages, researchers are concerned about
reasons, i.e. non-seismically designed structures or the necessity that, in order to ensure ductile struc-
formally seismically designed but characterised by tural behaviour, special care must be paid mainly in
wrong detailing and bad execution with poor materi- conceiving dissipative zones, which have to be
als or seismically designed but with load lower than properly detailed, assuring stable hysteresis loops,
the actual one. The collapse of r.c. buildings is very able to dissipate the earthquake input energy with
often a tragic reality in the Mediterranean Countries high efficiency (Bruneau et al., 1998; Gioncu &
(Figure 1). On the contrary, the performance of steel Mazzolani, 2002). As a confirmation, during the re-
and composite structures, even if they are not very cent seismic events of Northridge (Los Angeles, 17
numerous, has been satisfactorily good everywhere, January 1994) and Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe, 17
January 1995), even if the cases of collapse of steel Eurocode 8 or reduction factor R in the American
buildings have been extremely rare, steel moment codes UBC and AISC, which reduces the elastic de-
frame buildings, considered as highly ductile sys- sign spectrum. Different values of the reduction fac-
tems, exhibited an unexpected fragile behaviour. tor are given by the seismic codes for each structural
They presented many failures located at the beam- typology (EC8, 2004, UBC 1997, and AISC 1997).
to-column connections, challenging the assumption At the same time a minimum level of lateral stiff-
of high ductility and demonstrating that the knowl- ness is required in order to reduce the discomfort
edge on steel moment frames was not yet complete occurring during frequent minor earthquakes.
(Mazzolani, 2000). Hence, in order to improve con- It can be pointed out that the traditional philosophy
structional details and to propose new design solu- leads to a great simplification in the assessment of
tions for achieving a correspondence between the the design method, because it allows to perform in a
design requirements and the actual structural re- single shot both the check against the serviceability
sponse, the scientific community began to deepen limit state and the collapse limit state. But as it often
the reasons of this poor behaviour: does it depends happens, simplifications induce some limitations. In
on the material quality, on the design concept, on the fact, certain structural typologies, dimensioned with
structural scheme, on the constructional details, on current design procedures, present lesser amount of
the code provision, or on the seismic input occurred energy dissipation capacity than that required in or-
(Mazzolani, 1998)? Most of these questions are still der to prevent the collapse under the most severe de-
being analysed, but much more has been understood sign earthquake (Mazzolani and Piluso, 1995). Fur-
on the seismic behaviour of steel structures. Conse- thermore even in modern seismic codes the need to
quently, during the last years most of the recent check the actual seismic inelastic behaviour of the
knowledge has been already or is going to be intro- structure is not specified, because it requires very
duced into the structural design provisions for seis- cumbersome calculations. But the necessity to set-up
mic resistant design in all the earthquake prone general provisions, which are always on the safe
Countries, giving rise to a new generation of seismic side, is unquestionable even if not yet completely
codes (Gioncu & Mazzolani, 2002). fulfilled in the codes, specially for steel structures.
According to a more recent philosophy, a com-
2 SEISMIC DESIGN METHODOLOGIES prehensive design procedure should correlate the re-
sistance of a structure at various limit states to the
The earthquake-resistant design of steel structures is probability that the earthquake action can reach the
based on the same principles which all civil engi- intensity required to induce the corresponding fail-
neering constructions in seismic zones are based ure modes (Mazzolani, 1998). In this way, the
upon. minimisation of the cost/benefit ratio, which takes
The traditional philosophy (Mazzolani, 1998) ba- into account the construction cost and the expected
sically identifies three performance levels, which losses, can be attained for all the limit states occur-
should be achieved for increasing the intensity of ring during the service life of the structure (Maz-
earthquake actions: structural and non structural zolani and Piluso, 1996). The complete achievement
damage in frequent minor ground motions has to be of the design objectives needs the use of multi-level
prevented; the minimisation of both structural and design criteria, such as the so-called “performance
non structural damage during occasional moderate based earthquake resistant design”. It can be stated
seismic events has to be attained; finally collapse or that also the traditional design approach qualita-
serious damage in rare major earthquakes has to be tively and partially agrees with this concept (Bertero
avoided (Mazzolani and Piluso, 1994, and Maz- et al. 1996, and Bertero,1996). A more detailed defi-
zolani et al. 1995a). In some codes, the two first lev- nition of the performance based earthquake resistant
els are concentrated in one, corresponding to a dam- design has been supplied within the activities of
age limitation level, which can be called SEAOC Vision 2000 Committee (SEAOC Vision
serviceability limit state. 2000, 1995).
In this context, seismic resistant dissipative struc- The aim of this new approach is to provide the
tures are usually designed to withstand severe earth- designers with the criteria for selecting the appropri-
quakes by asking for a proper combination of ate structural system and its layout and for propor-
strength and energy dissipation capacity. This design tioning and detailing both structural and non struc-
goal is pursued in current seismic codes by means of tural components, so that for specified levels of
provisions aiming at assuring a minimum level of earthquake intensity the structural damage will be
strength and by means of design and detail rules for constrained within given limits. The coupling of a
obtaining the required energy dissipation capacity performance level with a specific level of ground
(Mazzolani, 1991a). The minimum required level of motion provides a performance design objective. In
strength is strictly dependent on the required energy this perspective, four performance levels have been
dissipation capacity and, for buildings, it is com- proposed: fully operational, operational, life safe
monly expressed by a coefficient, namely q-factor in and near collapse. The correspondent requirements
for different civil engineering facilities and construc- The lack of direct experience has been compensated
tional materials are also suggested. In addition, four by several research activities developed all over the
earthquake design levels are specified: frequent, oc- World in the last decade (as reported in STESSA
casional, rare and very rare, which are characterised ‘94, STESSA ’97, STESSA 2000, STESSA 2003
by a return period equal to 43, 72, 475 and 970 and the next STESSA 2006 Conferences).
years, respectively. In this direction, the Committee TC13 on “Seis-
According to this framework, it can be recognised mic Design” of the European Convention for Con-
that the complete knowledge of the seismic perform- structional Steelworks (ECCS) played a leader role
ances of a structure should need sophisticated nu- of coordination, harmonisation and codification
merical procedure, because the quantitative evalua- (Mazzolani, 1988). In 1988 the ECCS Committee
tion of the structural damage requires non-linear published its first proposal of codification, the Euro-
dynamic analyses. As such analyses cannot be com- pean Recommendations for Steel Structures in Seis-
pulsory requested in common design practice, sim- mic Zones (ECCS, 1988). This important issue
plified procedures have to be suggested, leading to represented in Europe the first international meeting
the evaluation of the seismic inelastic performance point between the well consolidated "steel culture"
at different design criteria. and the more recent "seismic culture" (Mazzolani,
In this perspective a simplified method based on a 1991b). In the special climate characterised by the
trilinear modelling of the load-displacement curve early developments of the Eurocodes during the
which requires only elastic and rigid-plastic analyses eighties, the ECCS-Committee TC13 devoted the
has been proposed by Mazzolani and Piluso (1997), main part of its activity as a consulting body of the
as a useful tool to check the design assumptions. It drafting panel of EC8. The pressing deadlines for the
has been also used to predict the value of the peak issue of EC8 forced the ECCS-Committee TC13 to
ground acceleration corresponding to the attainment concentrate in a very short time the preparation of its
of the above performance levels. The approximate Recommendations, which were immediately incor-
results have been successfully checked by means of porated as the "Steel section", since the first edition
dynamic inelastic analyses, leading to the evaluation of the Eurocode 8 (1988), which is very similar to
of the ductility demand of multi-story MR steel Chapter 6 of the last edition (2004).
frames (Figure 2). For these reasons, this first edition of ECCS Rec-
ommendations has to be considered as a first honest
attempt to clarify the right way to proceed, in view
that the results of the current research activity should
help to fill some of the existing gaps (Mazzolani,
1992).
After many years, due to the big developments in
the field of seismic resistant steel structures on in-
ternational level, together with the lessons learned
from the last terrible earthquakes, the scenario is
a)
completely changed and new areas are not yet ex-
plored (Mazzolani, 1995b).
An important issue of ECCS-Committee TC13
has been the ECCS Manual on Design of Steel
Structures in Seismic Zones (Mazzolani and Piluso,
1994). It intends to provide designers with the basic
principles which the ECCS provisions, and therefore
the EC8 ones, are based upon and, at the same time,
to give some new results, which must be used in the
b) improvement of the present codification.
Figure 2. Results of a simplified method based on a trilinear
modelling of the equivalent SDOF system (a) and its validation
4 THE BASIC STRUCTURAL TYPOLOGIES
by means of inelastic dynamic analyses of global (b) MR steel The main typologies of seismic-resistant dissipative
multi-storey frames.
structures can be classified according to the type of
3 THE EUROPEAN SEISMIC CODIFICATION dissipative elements. Three different typologies can
CHRONICLE be recognised (Mazzolani and Piluso, 1994):
Moment resisting frames (MRF);
The principles of design for the use of steel in seis- Concentrically braced frames (CBF);
mic resistant structures represent a quite new sub- Eccentrically braced frames (EBF).
ject, because steel is not the most popular structural Moment resisting frames are rectilinear assem-
material in European Countries (Mazzolani, 1999a). blages of beams and columns, with the beams rigidly
connected to the columns. Their primary source of eccentrically located in moment-resisting frames,
lateral stiffness and strength are the bending rigidity producing a stiffening effect. In such a way the
and strength of the frame members. Dissipative beams are divided in two or three parts, being the
zones form in a large number and they are concen- shortest one the dissipative element of the eccentri-
trated in discrete regions at the ends of the members, cally braced frame, called “link”, which dissipates
the so-called plastic hinges, which dissipate energy the earthquake input energy by means of the inelas-
through a quite stable bending cyclic behaviour. In tic cyclic shearing and bending. The assumed value
order to maximise the energy dissipation capacity, of the q-factor in this case is almost the same than
plastic hinges have to develop in beams and at the the one corresponding to MRF, depending on the lo-
column base. The corresponding failure mode is cation of the diagonal members (Mazzolani and
called “global collapse mechanism” (Figure 3). Piluso, 1994, and Bruneau et al. 1998). The common
types of EBF are classified as in Figure 5.

Figure 3. Global-type collapse mechanism.

Moreover moment frames are also preferred for Figure 4. Common configurations of concentrically braced
their architectural versatility: there are no bracing frames (CBF)
elements which block wall openings and the maxi-
mum flexibility for space utilisation is provided.
This advantage is accompanied by a poor lateral
stiffness of the whole structure, so that the member
sizes are larger than those required for strength, due
to the necessity to contain sway deflections within
the drift limits, imposed by the codes (Mazzolani
and Piluso, 1996, and Bruneau et al. 1998).
Concentrically braced frames resist lateral loads
primarily by developing high axial forces in diago-
nal members. Only in some cases, the bending ac-
tions in moment resisting connections (when appro-
priate) can resist a small percentage of lateral loads. Figure 5. Typical configurations of eccentrically braced frames
In general, the dissipative zones are represented by (EBF)
the tensile diagonals, because of the assumption
usually made that the compression ones buckle. The In order to provide lateral stiffness comparable to
inelastic cyclic performance of concentric braces is that of CBF and to offer high energy dissipation ca-
affected by an energy dissipation capacity degrada- pacity during large inelastic deformations, short
tion, because of the repeated buckling of diagonal links, having the flanges connected to the columns
bars. For this reasons the q reduction factor is as- by means of complete penetration welded joints, are
sumed to be lower than the one corresponding to to be preferred. This is because experimental results
MRF. Besides, high elastic stiffness is achieved by put in evidence that the links in shear possess a
the presence of diagonal bracing members (Maz- greater rotation capacity than the ones in bending
zolani and Piluso, 1996, and Bruneau et al. 1998). (AISC, 1997).
The most typical configurations are shown in Figure A comparison between MRF and braced frames
4. (CBF and EBF) can be qualitatively given on the
Eccentrically braced frames are hybrid lateral base of the requirements which a seismic resistant
force-resisting systems respect to the above men- structure has to satisfy: strength and stiffness against
tioned ones. In fact they combine the individual ad- moderate ground motions with a small return period;
vantages of moment-resisting frames and concentri- strength, ductility and energy dissipation capacity
cally braced frames, assuring a high elastic stiffness, against severe earthquakes with a great return pe-
together with stable inelastic response under cyclic riod. It can be synthesised as in Table 1 (Mazzolani,
lateral loading and good ductility and energy dissi- 1995a).
pation capacity. They are characterised by diagonals
Table 1. Comparison between MRF and braced frames. of structures, laying between a very rigid CBF up to
Strength Stiffness Ductility a very ductile MRF, which can be characterised by a
given combination of stiffness and ductility, for the
MRF good poor good
same strength requirement.
CBF good good poor
EBF good good good 6 ANALYSIS OF DAMAGE
It has been reported (Bertero et al., 1994) that, dur-
5 IMPROVED STRUCTURAL TYPOLOGIES ing the above-mentioned seismic events (see Section
1), many “pathological” failures occurred in steel
A new family of structural typologies dissipating buildings: structural designers expected that steel
energy in bending could be conceived starting from elements in building frames would be fully yield and
two bays CBF, which in practice is the most eco- finally collapsed in a ductile manner, after absorbing
nomic system (Mazzolani et al., 1995b). Simply part of the energy input of strong ground motions;
varying the distance “b” between the central col- contrary, it was particularly astonishing to observe
umns B and C of Figure 6, structures with different typical low-energy failures.
values of stiffness and ductility can be obtained, The damage can be characterised at different
ranging from CBF to MRF. As far as “b” increases, structural levels: material, cross-sections, members
stiffness decreases, but ductility and energy dissipa- and connections (Mazzolani, 1999b).
tion increase, due to the presence of a central weak As it is well known, steel is a very ductile mate-
beams, where two plastic hinges form at the ends. rial, but a big loss of ductility has been evidenced by
In this way a rational improvement of the poor fractures formed in the member far from the welded
ductility of a CBF can be achieved not so much by connections, crossing the entire sections, as it is
ductilising the system itself, but conceiving a system shown in Figures 8 a,b. This happened in the col-
composed by two or more rigid CBF subsystems, umns of the Ashiyahama apartment building in Kobe
connected by means of weak beams (Mazzolani et during the Hyogoken – Nanbu earthquake in 1995,
al., 1995b and 1995c). but it must be pointed out that the material has been
The structural solutions ranging between the CBF submitted to extremely severe loading conditions,
and the MRF are called dual structures, because due to very strong vertical quakes with very high ve-
horizontal loading are resisted in part by moment re- locity of propagation in presence of low temperature
sisting frames and in part by bracing systems acting (it was 6 o’clock a.m. in winter).
in the same plane.
A similar evolution can be achieved starting from
a classical one bay CBF system, with e=0, which is
transformed in a MRF passing trough EBF systems,
characterised by different dimensions of the links,
from short to long (Figure 7).

a) b)

Figure 8. Material brittle fracture during the 1995 earthquake


Figure 6. New typologies of frames: from a two bays CBF to a in Kobe: a) building; b) bridge.
single bay MRF.
At the cross-section level, a loss of ductility can
occur due to local buckling phenomena. This hap-
pened in some bridge piles during the Kobe earth-
quake, under form of panel buckling (Figure 9a) and
of “elephant foot buckled shape”, typical for circular
hollow sections (Figures 10a,b,c). In both cases the
very high vertical components seems to be the main
responsible.
Figure 7. New typologies of frames: from a single bay CBF to The local buckling in the column of the Pino
a single bay MRF.
Soarez building during the Mexico City earthquake
In conclusion, the generation of such structural (1985) is mainly due to the bad execution of weld-
systems offers the possibility to obtain a wide range ings,
a) b)

Figure 12. Connection failures


a) b)
Figure 9. Cross-section failures. bolted to a single plate shear tab which is shop
welded to the column. The beam flanges are field
welded to the column using complete penetration
welds. Web copes are required to accommodate the
backup plate at the top flange and to permit making
the bevel weld at the bottom flange.
The failure modes of this connections typology
during Northridge earthquake mainly consisted in
a) b) c)
the fracture of the welds connecting the beam
flanges to the column flanges and, in some cases, in
Figure 10. The “elephant foot” pattern.
the propagation of this fracture within the column.
Contrary, the current Japanese practice uses H-
which form the square hollow section (see Figure
shaped beams which are field welded to box-
9b).
columns (Figure 13b). The stresses of the beam
Member ductility is conditioned by global buck-
flanges are safely transmitted by means of continuity
ling phenomena as it can be seen in Figure 11, where
plates welded through the box-columns. The trans-
the overall buckling of bracing members produced
mission of the beam web stresses involves the out-
large permanent deformations, leading to a change
of-plane bending resistance of the column wall
in the hysteresis loops and a consequent reduction in
plates and, therefore, is not perfect. This causes high
energy absorption capacity.
stress concentration at the ends of beam flanges,
which is further promoted by the web copes intro-
duced for an easier welding (Mazzolani, 1998).

Figure 11. Member failures. a) b)

But in general damage is mainly located in the Figure 13. Beam- to column connections for MR steel frames,
connections. Typical are the failure of column base according to the current U.S. (a) and Japanese (b) practice.
plates produced by the rupture of anchor bolts or the
fracture of members at the bolted connections due to 7 LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
the presence of holes which generate a section with
The recent investigations have allowed to identify
reduced resistance (Figure 12a). The fracture of
some causes of damage in steel buildings.
welded beam-to-column connections in moment re-
On one hand, it can be ascribed to the use of field
sisting frames is undoubtedly the most widespread
welding so that poor workmanship is solely to blame
type of failure occurred in steel structures during
and, therefore, it is necessary to tighten the site su-
both Northridge and Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquakes
pervision and to improve the welding details and
(Figure 12b). However, it has been observed (Aki-
procedures; on the other hand, damage causes can be
yama and Yamada, 1995) that the fracture mecha-
attributed to an excess of seismic loading and to de-
nisms were different between the two earthquakes,
fective design guidance leading to a rotation ductil-
mainly due to the fact that different trends regarding
ity supply in the connections lower than the earth-
the detailing of beam-to-column connections are de-
quake imposed demand (Elnashai, 1994).
veloped in USA and Japan.
Some other factors influencing fracture modality
In fact according to the current U.S. practice for
are related to material properties, temperature, strain
seismic resistant frames, both beams and columns
rate, joint geometry, plate thickness and so forth.
are H-shaped (Figure 13a). The beam web is field
More extensive considerations can be done (Maz- column sub-assemblages, in bi-dimensional and tri-
zolani, 1995c): dimensional frames.
- at the material level, damage can be imputed to It has been evidenced (Bertero et al., 1994) that
the concurrence of high velocity of load applica- the types of failure occurred in welded beam-to-
tion and very low temperatures. These conditions column connections during the earthquakes have
are not reproducible by means of the usual labo- been already observed in laboratory experiments.
ratory tests and until now they have been ignored Numerical analyses of the seismic response of
by the codes. steel framed buildings damaged during Northridge
- local buckling of cross-sections in Kobe can be at- earthquake have pointed out that there were several
tributed to the important vertical component of ground motions, recorded during this earthquake,
the ground motions, which normally are underes- able to significantly lead the structure into the ine-
timate or sometimes neglected by seismic codes. lastic range. In many cases, the plastic rotation de-
- a distinction must be done between “far-field” mand at the beam ends exceeded 0.02 rad; therefore,
earthquakes which are characterised by the cyclic on the base of the available experimental data and
alternation of action and “near-field” earthquake codes provisions (UBC 91 and AIJ 90), it is clear
where the impulsive feature of the ground motion that the cracking occurring in the connections cannot
is predominant, as it occurred in Kobe. be considered unusual.
It has also to be remembered that, regarding the In the experimental tests carried out in USA, a
strength requirements, the American code UBC 91 plastic rotation supply equal to 0.02 rad has been
provides for special moments resisting frames a re- used as a benchmark to judge the seismic perform-
duction factor Rw equal to 12, which is equivalent to ance of beam-to-column connections, because it was
a value of the European q-factor equal to 8. On the believed to be sufficient to withstand severe earth-
contrary, Eurocode 8 provides a q-factor value equal quakes. As the recent experience demonstrated that
to 6 and the Japanese code a structural coefficient Ds this limit value can be exceeded, it is clear that the
equal to 0.25 which corresponds to q = 4. Therefore, attention should be focuses on the design value of
concerning the damage experienced by steel build- the q-factor which could be reduced in order to limit
ings during the Northridge earthquake, it could be plastic rotation demands occurring during severe
attributed to an excess of local ductility demand due earthquakes or, as an alternative, on the improve-
to the high earthquake intensity compared with the ment of the seismic performances of dissipative
adopted design level. zones.
Furthermore, in U.S. practice the beam flange is The SAC Steel Project has been developed to de-
welded to the column flange by provisionally using rive new design procedures accounting for the les-
bolted connection in the beam web during the erec- sons learned from the Northridge earthquake. In par-
tion. In such a connection, the bending moment at ticular, the structural design philosophy, as well as
the beam web is hardly transmitted to the column, the characteristics of welding and of the structural
resulting in the stress concentration in flanges at the details, the velocity of load application and the in-
end of beams. This normally occurs in a beam-to- fluence of the earthquake vertical component are the
column connection because, while the stress trans- main issues under investigation within the SAC Pro-
mission between the beam flange and the column is ject (STESSA 2000).
completely made through the diaphragm plate, the Also in Europe, from the observation of damage
bending moment in the web of the beam cannot be in steel structure connections after the earthquakes
transmitted completely to the column, since the of Northridge and Kobe it seemed that there is an
stress transmission is made through the out-of-plane urgent need to investigate new topics such as the in-
bending of the column flange. The diaphragm plate fluence of the strain rate on the cyclic behaviour of
is usually thicker and wider than the beam flange beam-to-column joints and more in general to re-
and, therefore, the fracture develops on the side of view the whole background of modern seismic codes
the beam (Mazzolani, 1998). in order to grasp the design rules which failed (Maz-
These effects were increased by the fact that the zolani, 1998).
weak-beam type is preferred both in Japan and USA The following question can raise: «Can the re-
as a yield-mechanism. In addition the use of com- sults of the American and Japanese “on field” ex-
pact beam sections, with small width to thickness ra- perience be applied to European practice ? ».
tio, in order to avoid local buckling, gives rise to It has to be considered that the steel grade, the
stress concentration in the beam flanges and brittle chemical composition and the mechanical character-
mode of failure in the connection. Besides, defects istics of the steel can be different. Also the welding
in material of the heavy column must be an incentive technique can be different. In addition, different
for the propagation of brittle cracks on the side of strength requirements and different levels of seismic
the column. input lead to different plastic rotation demands.
Both in USA and in Japan extensive programs of In this context, a group of 8 European Countries
experimental tests has been carried out on beam-to- (Italy, Romania, Greece, Portugal, France, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Slovenia) developed a joint research pro-
ject (INCO-COPERNICUS), co-called RECOS
(“Reliability of Connections of Steel Frame Build-
ings in Seismic Areas”), sponsored by the European
Commission (Mazzolani, 1999c). The program of
the joint project has been established in order to Figure 14. General view of the Naples Management Centre
provide an answer to the above questions, by ac- (CDN).
complishing the following objectives: a) Analysis
and synthesis of research results, including Code of Naples was included in the third sismicity zone,
Provisions, in relation with the evidence of North- the lowest one, which corresponds to a seismic in-
ridge and Kobe earthquakes. Particular attention has tensity coefficient equal to 0.04, according to the na-
been devoted also to those research results which tional seismic code. At that time for buildings al-
have not accounted for in preparing the provisions of ready designed, but not yet under construction or at
the modern seismic codes. b) Assessment of new cri- their early beginning it was necessary to provide the
teria for selecting the behaviour factor for different up-grading of the structural scheme, by keeping the
structural typologies and definition of the corre- same typology and introducing suitable strengthen-
sponding range of validity. In particular, in this ing changes in order to fulfil the new seismic re-
field, the need to provide simplified methods for quirements. It was in the case of many buildings of
evaluating the q-factor is felt more and more urgent. the Management Centre. They range from 25 m to
The aim is to provide the designer with an operative 120 m high and most of them belong to the relevant
tool, which allows him to be aware of the inelastic category of primary importance for civil protection.
performances of the designed structure. c) Identifi- Many different solutions have been conceived for
cation and evaluation of the structural characteristics the seismic-resistant structures, both classical and
of connections influencing the seismic response of innovative. The most used classical solution is the
steel buildings. Therefore, the research has been de- mixed one, in which reinforced concrete cores pro-
voted to the strength and stiffness evaluation of vide to stabilize the steel skeleton against the effect
moment resistant connections and to the prediction of horizontal loads (Figure 15). Many of the follow-
of their degradation under cyclic loads, by consider- ing applications shown here belong to this typology.
ing also the effect of strain rate and temperature.
Low cycle fatigue has been also investigated. d)
Definition of criteria for designing and detailing
beam-to-column connections for seismic resistant
structures, considering also the seismicity of the site
(far-source and near-source effects) (Mazzolani,
1999d, 2000).
Figure 15. Some mixed solutions for buildings in the CDN of
8 DESIGN AND APPLICATIONS Naples.

A slow but increasing tendency to use steelwork


against earthquake has been observed in the last The Law Court building is composed by three
decades. Since 1980 this phenomenon was clearly towers, which are equal in plan, but have different
evident in Italy mainly in the construction of build- height varying from 78 to 117 m (Figure 16). They
ings, which play a fundamental role during the emer- are connected by an horizontal building in the front
gency, like hospitals, fire stations, electrical facili- part, containing the Court-rooms. For each tower the
ties, town halls, and so on. structural system is composed by reinforced con-
Also in other southern European earthquake crete curved walls and cores, which provide strength
prone Countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Portu- and stability under horizontal loads (wind, earth-
gal) this process started and some steel and compos- quakes), and a steel skeleton resisting vertical loads
ite buildings have been erected for important appli- only. The steel columns with square box-section are
cations. located along the perimeter. The main floor beams
The Naples Management Centre (CDN) is an ex- have a radial direction and they are pinned to the
ample of this new trend (Figure 14). It is the largest steel columns and to the reinforced concrete walls.
urban development initiative currently underway in The Electrical Department is composed by two
Italy and one of the largest in Europe. It consists on twin towers 120 m high (Figure 17a). Their plan has
the creation of a new city quarter, which provides a lozenge shape with dimensions 58 x 14. The struc-
residential and business functions in such a way to ture of each tower is composed by two reinforced
meet the more and more growing demand of the concrete cores, containing stairs and elevators, con-
Naples metropolitan area (Mazzolani, 1995d). After nected at the top by a box-section girder which the
the Campania-Basilicata earthquake of 1980 the city 29 stories are suspended to. The suspended structure
is made of steel ties and steel-concrete composite
structure, in which the concrete cores, containing
stairs, elevators and poles, are spaced about 18 x 18
m. They provide the resistance against horizontal
forces. The steel skeleton is suspended to a top grid
a)
by means of vertical ties (Figure 19a). The top grid
is connected to the upper part of concrete cores by
means of special devices, which isolate the steel
skeleton from the vertical and horizontal ground mo-
tions transmitted to the towers. The bearing devices
(Figure 19b), made of a combination of neoprene
and teflon, play the double role to allow for free
movements under serviceability conditions and to
b) provide damping and energy absorption during an
earthquake (Mazzolani and Serino, 1997a).
Figure 16. The Law Court building of Naples: a) layout of the
three towers; b) general view.

floor beams. The horizontal connection between


cores and composite floor structure is provided by
means of elasto-plastic dissipative devices (Figure
17b), which allow for a significant reduction of
seismic effects, mainly at the base of the cores, Figure 18. The new Fire Station of Naples: general view.
where bending moment and shear are reduced of
30%. Numerical and physical models have been
used in order to validate this structural solution. The
model in scale 1:20 has been tested on a shaking ta-
ble with six controlled degree of freedom. The ex- a) b)
perimental results confirmed the advantages of the
use of such dissipative devices in a suspended struc- Figure 19. The new Fire Station of Naples (Building A): a) the
suspended scheme; b) the bearing devices.
ture (Belli and Guarracino, 1997).
The new Fire Station in Naples is composed by
Building B, containing garage, pole, storehouse,
eight buildings in total (Figure 18). They have been
guesthouse, training, has a similar plan distribution
designed by using steel and composite structures
with the same structural mesh as the previous build-
with both traditional and innovative solutions for
ing, but the structural solution is different (Figure
seismic protection (designer F.M. Mazzolani, 1986).
20a). The only vertical elements are four couples of
Building A, containing garage, headquarters, lodg-
steel towers which have the double function to resist
ings and canteen for fire brigade, is the most impor-
seismic actions and to support the floor slabs by
tant at least for two reasons: first, because this build-
means of neoprene bearings. The connection be-
ing, initiated in 1981 and completed in 1985, was
tween the main floor beams and the adjacent steel
the first example in Italy of a base isolated structure;
towers is made by means of shock-block devices
made of oleodynamic cylinders (Figure 20b). They
act as provisional restraints, which allow free move-
ments of the structure under service loads (live
loads, wind, temperature, ...), but become rigid un-
der seismic actions. They produce the effect to
change the structural scheme in a more favourable
way under low intensity earthquakes and to reduce
the degree of damageability of the structure under
severe earthquakes (Mazzolani and Serino, 1997b).

a) b)

Figure 17. The Electrical Department of Naples: a) general


view; b) dissipative device.

second, because it received the award of the Euro- a) b)


pean Convention for Constructional Steelworks in Figure 20. The new Fire Station of Naples (Building B): a)
1987. The structural scheme is based on a composite general view; b) the oleodynamic cylinder.
Building E, containing head-quarters, offices and tion of a plastic hinge there and consequently guar-
lodgings, contrary to the first two, has a classical so- antee a global failure mechanism (Figure 23e).
lution. The steel structure is braced by means of re-
ticular concentric bracings (CBF), which stabilise
the structure under horizontal loads (Figure 21). The
floor structure is composed by primary and secon-
dary beams supported by columns, the beam-to-
column joints being simply pinned.
a) b)

c) d) e)
Figure 21. The new Fire Station of Naples (Building E).
Figure 23. The Mara Hotel in Sinaia (Romania): a) general
Different typologies are used in Italy in higher view; b) the eccentric K-bracing; c) the eccentric D-bracing; d)
sismicity areas, like in Messina (Sicily), where ec- link-to-brace connection; e) 'dog-bone' connection at the col-
centric bracing frames (EBF) are used for the struc- umn base.
ture of the seven storeys building built in 1996 for
the Library of the new Department of Literature and EBF systems have been used by the same Author
Philosophy of the University (Figure 22). The shape in the office building of the ROMTRANS Company
of the building is an octagonal prism. The eccentri- in Constanta and in the retrofitting of an office
cally braced system of “K” shaped bracings has been building in Bucharest (1996).
calibrated in order to achieve the simultaneous en- Again EBF are used more recently in the Banc
gagement into plastic range of the links located at Post Building (designer D. Dubina, proof engineer
the different stories. All connections in the moment V. Gioncu) in Timisoara (Figure 24a). The steel
resisting frames are rigid and of full-strength type skeleton of five levels is a space moment resisting
(D’Amore and D'Amore, 1997). A seismic resistant frame composed by cruciform columns and inte-
steel structure with eccentric bracings (EBF) has grated by K-bracings (Figure 24b). The bolted end-
been designed for the first time in Romania by Dra- plate beam-to-column connections (Figure 24c) have
gos Georgescu (1996). The Mara Hotel (Figure 23a), been preliminarily tested under cyclic loading at the
located in the picturesque mountain town of Sinaia, laboratory of the University of Timisoara (Dubina et
has a structure composed by a gravitational system al, 2000). Mixed solutions are very popular also in
for vertical loads and an EBF system resisting seis- Portugal. In the campus of the University of Lisbon
mic actions and providing the required stiffness. two new ten storeys buildings, shaped as mush-
rooms, have been recently erected (1994-1999); they
are the Departments of Electronic and Chemistry
(Figure25a).Both buildings consist in a central rein-
forced concrete core for stairs and elevators, which
supports large cantilever beams every three levels.

a) b)

Figure 22. The library of the new Department of Literature and a)


Philosophy of the University of Messina (Italy): a) general
view; b) during erection.

The EBF are of K-braced (Figure 23b) and D-


braced (Figure 23c) types, according to architectural
reasons. The links are short and the link-to-column
connection is made of a rigid segment shop-welded
c) b)
to the column and field-bolted to the link. Also the
link-to-brace connection is field bolted (Figure 23d). Figure 24. The Banc Post Building in Timisoara (Romania): a)
The “dog-bone” solution has been adopted at the general view; b) the eccentric bracing; c) haunched beam-to-
base of the columns, in order to allow for the forma- column connection.
An apartment and office building of 30 floors is
now under construction in the EXPO area of Lisbon
(Figure 25b). Also in this building the bracing func-
tion is fulfilled by a reinforced concrete core and the
floor structures are composite.

Figure 28. The use of EBF in Turkey: Istanbul Bilgi Univer-


sity.

giving rise to an increase of load carrying capacity


a) b) in horizontal direction of about 5 to 6 times (Maz-
Figure 25. The Departments of Electronic and Chemistry (a) zolani et al, 2004).
and a multistorey building in the EXPO area (b) in Lisbon
(Portugal).

Steel structures are used also in Greece, where the


reinforced concrete tradition is very strong. One of
the first steel and composite building is the Faculty
of Physics and Mathematics at the Aristotle Univer-
sity in Tessaloniki (1997). The structural scheme is a
CBF with inverted V bracings, which are visible in
some part of the façade giving an architectural fea- Figure 29. The use of EBF in Italy: seismic upgrading of r.c.
ture to the building (Figure 26). Until now EBFs building .
structures have been used in Greece just for power
plant structures (Figure 27a) and for upgrading a
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