ABSTRACT

Modern codes for building in seismic areas allow for designing high-ductility structures, without providing designers, however, detailed specifications or prescriptions for designing and building certain components. On the other hand, steel-concrete composite structures, owing to their high capacity for prefabrication and rational use of the materials, seem able to provide high levels of performance in terms of ductility and dissipation energy, while at the same time containing construction costs. The present paper illustrates the methods that were adopted in order to design a partial strength beam-to-column joint in view of the construction of high-ductility moment-resisting frames, where inelastic phenomena occur precisely in beam-to-column joints and at the column bases.