EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF BRACED FRAMES SUBJECTED TO LATERAL LOADS

Abstract

This investigation covers a detailed experi-mental study of the behaviour of diagonally braced building frames, subjected to lateral static loads. The diagonal braces increase the sway stiffness of the buildings reducing the period of vibration. In order to simplify the computation of stiffness of a braced frame, a conventicnal method is to assume that braces undergo axial deformations only and act in parallel with.the skeleton frame. For the verification of such simplifying assum-tions, a number of plane rigid jointed, perspex models, having different combinations of bays, storeys and braces were prepared and tested. It was found that the analytic computation of spring factor is not valid for all locations of braces. It was also noted that compression diagonal contributes appreciably to the sway stiffness when nearly all the panels are braced.