High-precision fe-analysis for seismic collapse simulation of steel building frames

The project of E-Simulator is under way at Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center (E-Defense), which belongs to National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), Japan. E-Defense facilitates the world's largest shaking table. The E-Simulator uses the parallel EF-analysis software package called ADVENTURECluster (ADVC) as a platform, and we carried out elastoplastic seismic response analysis of high-rise building frame with over 70-million DOFs. In this study, we report the results of high-precision FE-analysis for simulation of dynamic collapse behavior of the 4-story steel building frame. The whole frame is discretized into hexahedral elements with linear interpolation functions. In order to improve the accuracy of collapse simulation, a new piecewise linear combined isotropic and kinematic hardening rule is implemented for steel material, and its parameters are identified from the uniaxial material test result. The stud bolts are precisely modeled using multipoint constraints and nonlinear springs. The wire-meshes in the concrete slab are modeled using hexahedral elements. The damping due to plastic energy dissipation of exterior walls is modeled by shear springs between the floors. The accuracy of the model is verified in comparison to the physical test of steel-concrete composite beam subjected to static deformation. It will be shown that elastoplastic dynamic responses of the 4-story frame can be estimated with good accuracy using a high-precision FE-analysis without resort to macro-models such as plastic hinge and composite beam effect.