Estimation of seismic demands of steel frames subjected to near‐fault earthquakes having forward directivity and comparing with pushover analysis results

High statistics of damages in modern structures (buildings structured based on new codes) exposed to near‐fault earthquake illustrates the necessity of more studies on this kind of earthquake effects on the structures. A specification of near‐fault earthquakes is the directivity effects. Existing records of near‐fault quakes containing directivity effects including records of Iran and abroad were modified and used for linear time history analysis of three steel moment frames (5, 8 and 12 story frames), and the results were compared with nonlinear time history analysis and pushover analysis of far‐fault quakes in this paper. The results showed that these records (near fault) motivate high modes of the structure, and especially for the 12‐story structure, high response was detected, but none of these results made the frames collapse. By comparing nonlinear dynamic analysis (time history) with nonlinear static analysis (pushover), it was concluded that various lateral load patterns in pushover cannot cover the time history result needs. Load distribution pattern based on the first vibration mode covers these demands in the lower floors, but in higher floors, this method is not applicable. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.