Displacement-based design of precast hinged portal frames with additional dissipating devices at beam-to-column joints

The seismic performance of precast portal frames typical of the industrial and commercial sector could be generally improved by providing additional mechanical devices at the beam-to-column joint. Such devices could provide an additional degree of fixity and energy dissipation in a joint generally characterized by a dry hinged connection, adopted to speed-up the construction phase. Another advantage of placing additional devices at the beam-to-column joint is the possibility to act as a fuse, concentrating the seismic damage on few sacrificial and replaceable elements. A procedure to design precast portal frames adopting additional devices is provided herein. The procedure moves from the Displacement-Based Design methodology proposed by M.J.N. Priestley, and it is applicable for both the design of new structures and the retrofit of existing ones. After the derivation of the required analytical formulations, the procedure is applied to select the additional devices for a new and an existing structural system. The validation through non-linear time history analyses allows to highlight the advantages and drawbacks of the considered devices and to prove the effectiveness of the proposed design procedure.