Explicit expressions for inelastic design quantities in composite frames considering effects of nearby columns and floors

Abstract

Explicit expressions for rapid prediction of inelastic design quantities (considering cracking of concrete) from corresponding elastic quantities, are presented for multi-storey composite frames (with steel columns and steel-concrete composite beams) subjected to service load. These expressions have been developed from weights and biases of the trained neural networks considering concrete stress, relative stiffness of beams and columns including effects of cracking in the floors below and above. Large amount of data sets required for training of neural networks have been generated using an analytical-numerical procedure developed by the authors. The neural networks have been developed for moments and deflections, for first floor, intermediate floors (second floor to ante-penultimate floor), penultimate floor and topmost floor. In the case of moments, expressions have been proposed for exterior end of exterior beam, interior end of exterior beam and both interior ends of interior beams, for each type of floor with a total of twelve expressions. Similarly, in the case of deflections, expressions have been proposed for exterior beam and interior beam of each type of floor with a total of eight expressions. The proposed expressions have been verified by comparison of the results with those obtained from the analytical-numerical procedure. This methodology helps to obtain the inelastic design quantities from the elastic quantities with simple calculations and thus would be very useful in preliminary design. Copyright © 2017 Techno-Press, Ltd.