BRACED FRAME STRUCTURE

Ajay Janardhan
M121102
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 Bracing is highly efficient and economical
method of resisting horizontal forces in
frame structures.

 Consists of columns and girders which

support gravity loading and diagonal
bracings that resist horizontal loading.

 They together form a cantilever truss with

braces and girders as web members and
columns as chords.

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 Bracing is efficient because the diagonals
work in axial stress and therefore it requires
minimum member sizes in providing
stiffness and strength against horizontal
shear.

 Statue of Liberty, constructed in New York

in 1883 is one of the first major braced
structure.

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 Bracings may cause obstructions to
◦ architectural plan ,
◦ internal space and traffic
◦ also in location of doors and window openings.

 Hence selected and located to cause

minimum obstruction while satisfying the
structural requirements of resisting the shear
and torque on building.

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TYPES OF BRACING
 Most effective but also most obstructive
types of bracing are those that form a fully
triangulated vertical truss.

 These include
◦ Single Diagonal,
◦ Double Diagonal and
◦ K- Braced

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Single Diagonal Double Diagonal

K Bracings

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Double Diagonal Bracing in Burj al Arab
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• Fully diagonal types of braced bents are generally
located beside and between elevators, service, and stair
shafts.
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 Other types of braced bents allow window
and door openings, but its arrangement
causes bending in the girder.

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 Some other type introduces bending in both
the Columns and Girders.

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 The types of brace bent that respond to
lateral loading by bending of the girder, or
of girders and columns are laterally less stiff
and therefore less efficient than fully
triangulated truss.

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 BEHAVIOR OF BRACING
 Braces will be subjected to both tension and
compression but are usually designed for
more stringent case of compression.
 For this reason bracing system with short
braces are preferred.
For e.g. K type is preferred in fully-diagonal
type.
The braces in double-diagonal systems are
sometimes assumed to buckle in compression,
hence each diagonal is designed to carry in
tension.
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 A significant advantage of fully
triangulated bracing type is that the girder
moment and shear is independent of lateral
loading on the structure.

 Hence floor framing is designed for gravity

load only and can be repeated throughout
the height of the structure attaining
economy.

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 In bracing systems in which diagonals
connect to girder at significant distance from
the girder ends, girders can be designed as
continuous over the connections, hence
economical.

 Here as one or both ends are connected to the

beam, which is relatively flexible vertically,
hence donot attract significant load as the
column shortens under gravity loading.
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Behavior of Bracing in Eccentric Bracing
System
 Generally used to design a ductile structure
for an earthquake resistant steel-frame
structure.

 In an event of an over load in the event of a

major Earth Quake, the short links of beams
(shown in fig a) serves as a “fuse” by
deforming plastically in shear to give a
ductile response to structure.

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Fig (a) 23
Role of Web Members

 Here the diagonals in each story is in

compression causing the beams to be in axial
tension, therefore the shortening of the
diagonals and extension of the beams gives
rise to the shear deformation of the bent
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Here the forces in braces connecting to each
beam end are in equilibrium horizontally, with
beam carrying insignificant axial load.

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 Fig. (a) Fig. (b)
• In Fig. a, half of each beam is in compression and other half in
tension.

• In Fig. b, the ends parts of the beam are in compression and

tension with the whole beam subjected to double curvature
bending.

•With a reverse in the direction of horizontal force on

structure, the actions and deformations in each member of the
bracing will also be reversed. 26
BEHAVIOR OF BRACED BENTS

 Behaves as a cantilever under horizontal

loading

 Columns acts as chords in carrying external

load moments with tension in windward
column and compression in leeward column.

 Diagonals and girders serve as the web

members in carrying horizontal shear.

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 The effect of chords axial
deformations on the lateral
deflection of the frame
tends to cause a “flexural”
configuration on the
structure

with concavity downwind

and a max slope at top.

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•The effect of the web member
deformations, causes a “shear”
configuration of the structure

• with concavity upwind, a max

slope at the base, and a zero
slope at top.

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 The resultant deflected shape is a combination of
the flexural and shear curves
 Resultant configuration depending on their relative
magnitudes and type of bracing. 30
 In bents braced in a single bay, horizontal
loading causes maximum tension at the base
of windward column.
 More slender is the bay, larger is the tensile
force.
 For height to width ratios of braced bays
greater than 10, uplift forces arises that are
too large to handle.
 In multibay bents this problem can be
avoided by successive story bracing
indifferent bays of bent.

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 For architectural requirements it may be
necessary to use different types of bracings
in different bays of same bent, or in bays of
different parallel bents.

 In such case it should be ensured that lateral

stiffness of individual braced bays are
comparable.

 Combination of fully diagonal or K-type

braced panels are usually stiff in shear.

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 In situations having setbacks or transition
levels it may not be possible to provide
braces in a single vertical plane throughout
the height of structure.

 Here shear is transferred from the braced

bents above the set back or transition to
those below by the horizontal-plane rigidity
of the floor slab or by horizontal bracing in
the plane of the floor.

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 METHODS OF ANALYSIS
1. Member Force Analysis
Analysis of forces in a statically determinate
triangulated braced bent can be made using
method of sections.

Example 1:
For a single diagonal braced panel shown in
fig., subjected to an external shear Q i in story
i and external moment Mi and Mi  1.
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Solu:
Assuming the frame to be pin-jointed so that the
members carry only axial forces, the force in the
brace can be found by considering the horizontal
equilibrium of the free body above s/n XX 36
 FBC cos   Qi

Qi
Hence FBC 
cos 

The force FBD in the column BD is found by

considering moment equilibrium of upper free
body about C, thus
FBD L  M i 1
 M i 1
FBD 
L
Similarly FAC in column AC is obtained from
moment equilibrium of the upper free body about
B Mi
FAC 
L 37
Example 2

Here it is assumed that the shear in story i is

shared equally between the braces. 38
Then from the horizontal equilibrium of upper
free body, Qi
FEC cos  
2
Qi
 FEC 
2 cos 

And from moment equilibrium of upper free

body about D,
( FAC  FEC sin  ) L  M i 1

 FAC 
Mi
 FEC sin 
L

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DRIFT ANALYSIS

Influenced by:
 Flexural mode contributions due to column
axial deformations
 Shear mode contributions due to diagonal
and girder deformations

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Shear mode displacements :
 More significant in low rise braced
structures
 Largely determine the lateral stiffness of the
structure
Flexural mode displacements :
 More significant in medium to high rise
structures
 Caused by higher axial forces, deformations
in columns and accumulation of their effects
over greater heights.
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In a panel with single diagonal bracing & a
height to width ratio 8:
 Total drift of 60-70% is due to flexural
component
 With remainder due to shear component

Story drift :
 Increment of lateral deflection in a story
height
 Often the limiting drift criterion

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 In a braced bent :
 story drift – maximum at or close to top of
structure
 More strongly influenced by flexural
component of deflection
◦ Since inclination of structure caused by flexural
component accumulates up the structure.
◦ While shear component diminishes towards the
top.
 In single diagonal braced frame, flexural
component contribute 95% of top story drift.

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Hand analysis for drift:
 Allows drift contributions of individual
members to be seen.
 Provides guidance as to which members
should be increased in size to most
effectively reduce an excessive total or story
drift

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 Virtual Work Drift Analysis
Step 1:
Force analysis of the structure
subjected to horizontal load to
determine:
 axial force Pj in each member
j
 BM Mxj at sections X along
members subjected to
bending
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Step 2:
Force analysis is made
with structure subjected to
only a unit imaginary or
dummy horizontal load at
level N whose drift is
required to give
 Axial force jN and
moment xjN at section
X in bending members

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 The resulting horizontal deflection at N :
 PL   Mx 
L1
 N   p jn      m xjn  dx
 AE  0  EI 
All members subjected to Only those members
axial load subjected to bending

 Lj = Length for each member j

 Aj = Area for each member j
 Ij = Moment of inertia for each member j
 E = Elastic modulus

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If drift required at another level n:
 Another dummy unit load analysis made
 But with unit load applied only at level n.
 Resulting jn and xjN substituted in
equation to give drift.

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Virtual work method :
 Exact
 Easily be systematized by tabulation
 Adequate assessment of deflected
configuration, total drift ,story drift can be
obtained by plotting deflection diagram.

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Combined Moment –Area and Shear Force
Formula Approximate Drift Analysis
An approximate calculation of the drift can be
made by using
 Moment area method to obtain flexural
component (component resulting from column
axial deformation).
 Shear deflection formula to calculate shear
component.

 Here detailed member force analysis of frame

is not necessary; only external moment and
shear force at each level are necessary. 50
Flexural Component
Procedure :
 Calculate the external moment diagram.
 Compute the second moments of area I of
the column sectional areas about their
common centroid.
 The moment diagram and the values of I are
used to construct M / EI diagram.
 Story drift in story i,  if ,due to flexure of the
structure is then obtained.
 if  hiif
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 hi= height of story
 if= inclination of the story I

 if is equal to area under M / EI curve between

the base of the structure and the mid height of
story.
 Total drift at floor n, due to flexure, is given by
the sum of the story drifts from the first to nth
story.
n
 ns    if
1

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Shear Component
 The shear component of the story drift in
story i,  is , is a function of
◦ external shear and
◦ the properties of the braces and girder in that
story.
 Shear component of the total drift at floor
level n,  ns , is equal to the sum of the story
shear components of drift from the first to
the nth stories. n
 ns    is
1

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 Total drift at level n
 n   nf   ns 55
Example:
A 15 story single-diagonally braced frame
consists of three 5-story regions. It is required
to determine the draft at floors 5, 10, 15 (i.e.,
where floor n is at the top story n) for a uniform
wind load of 10 kips per story. Assume the
elastic modulus
E= 4.2 x 10^6 kip/ft^2

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Two number of columns

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For 15th floor, M = 5x5 = 25
For 14th floor, M = 5x15 + 10x5 = 125

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Story inclination for story 2
if  2165.6 1877.6  4043.2
Such accumulated values give the inclination of each story i
due to flexure, .
if

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USE OF LARGE SCALE BRACING
 The typical arrangement of bracing in tall
building structure is in story-height, bay-width
modules which allows the conceal the bracings
within the walls of building.

 High efficiency of bracing in resisting lateral

loads has been further exploited by using it in
larger modular scale, both within the building
and externally across the faces.

 The externally placed massive diagonals have

sometimes emphasized as an architectural
feature.
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Mercantile Tower , St. Louis, Missouri

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Alcan Building in San Francisco

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Here at each mid panel
crossover point the braces
connect to intermediate columns
that rise from first floor
transition girder. This
arrangement serves several
roles:

 to carry lateral shear in the

building,
 to mobilize the intermediate
columns axially so that they
participate with the main
columns in resisting lateral load
moment,
 to shift gravity loading from
the intermediate columns to the
main columns and thus reduce
the load on the transfer girder.
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John Hancock Building, Chicago (100-story)

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SUMMARY
 A braced frame is highly efficient and
economical method of resisting horizontal forces in
frame structures.

 Fully diagonal bracing is the most effective type

of bracing but most obstructive too.

 Certain types of braces connect part way along

the girder, allowing the girder to be designed as
continuous over the connection, resulting in
economy.

Certain braced frames does not significantly

contribute horizontal loading to girders, thus
allowing the girders to be uniform over the
structure 71
Braced bents deflect with a combination of
flexural and shear components;
Flexural component – column axial deformation
Shear component – brace and girder deformation

Braced frame member forces are usually

analyzed by method of joints or method of
sections.

Deflection may be analyzed exactly by using virtual

work method, or approximately, using a combination
the moment area method and shear deflection formula.

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Multistory multibay bracing arrangement
cause more integral behavior of column girder
system in resisting both horizontal and gravity
loading, creating highly efficient structural
forms for very tall building.

Large scale bracing also gives architectural

effect to building.

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