Frame‐type load bearing system for long‐span cantilevers

Cantilevers experience high risks of vulnerability against progressive collapse and vertical ground motion effects. In addition, despite common engineering practice that regards cantilevers dominated by vertical loads, it is shown that while subjected to lateral forces, they might undergo large deflections due to the formation of plastic hinges in the supporting structural subassemblage; even if cantilevers satisfy deflection limits proposed by design codes. To overcome such vulnerabilities, successive cantilever beams can be coupled in the height of the structure using vertical elements to develop a framed cantilever system. Frame behavior in cantilevers is formulized using spring models and by employing optimization procedures, economic efficiency is compared to the conventional method. The optimization results for 6 2‐D steel moment frames showed that employing framed cantilever system has the potential to reduce required material weight up to 40%. Furthermore, nonlinear pushdown and incremental dynamic analyses were conducted to extract capacity and fragility curves. The results reveal the superior performance of framed cantilevers in both lateral and vertical loads while offering better resistance against the progressive collapse.