Influence of infill configurations on seismic responses of steel self‐centering moment resisting frames

Steel self‐centering moment resisting frames (SC‐MRFs) have been validated experimentally as resilient structural systems, mainly highlighting the minimized residual drift responses but are prone to suffering high‐mode effects. In this paper, the influence of infill configurations on seismic responses of steel SC‐MRFs was first analyzed. A comparison of the previous experimental results was conducted to investigate the effect of infills on the residual drift of steel frames. In the numerical simulation, the infills were modeled as the equivalent strut diagonals, and the force–displacement of the infills was modeled using the combination of Elastic‐No Tension Material and Hysteretic Material offered by the OpenSees program. The seismic analyses of 3‐ and 9‐story SC‐MRFs with and without infills were carried out to analyze the effects of infills on the residual drift responses and high‐mode contribution under the selected ground motions. Finally, the different infill types and infill irregularities on the seismic responses were investigated to obtain general conclusions. The plastic deformations of columns and infills are also compared in the different cases of infill configurations. The results reveal that all infilled cases experience reduced peak‐story drift and force demands at the upper stories.