Seismic performance of controlled spine frames with energy-dissipating members.

Recently, various controlled rocking systems have been proposed in seismic design to prevent damage concentration and to achieve self-centering against a wide range of input ground motion intensities. However, several obstacles must be overcome before these systems can be applied to actual buildings; for example, the requirement for large, self-centering post-tensioned strands and special treatment at uplift column bases must be addressed. This paper proposes a non-uplifting spine frame system with energy-dissipating members without post-tensioned strands, its self-centering function is achieved by envelope elastic-moment frames. The system is applied to an actual building constructed in Japan. Conventional shear damper and uplifting rocking systems with post-tensioned strands developed in prior studies are also applied to the same building structures, and the performances of the three systems, including damage distribution, energy dissipation, self-centering, robustness against severe earthquakes, and irregular stiffness, are compared and discussed through numerical simulations based on practical design criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]