Elastoplastic analysis of knee bracing frame

The knee bracing steel frame (KBF) is a new kind of energy dissipating frame, which combines excellent ductility and lateral stiffness. As the structural fuse of the frame, the knee element will yield first during a severe earthquake so that no damage occurs to the major structural members and the rehabilitation is easy and economical. To help fully understand the relations between its seismic performance and the structural parameters, systematic elastoplastic analysis of the KBF structure with finite element method was conducted in this work. Finally, general design recommendations were made according to the results of the analysis.