From the time that civil engineers have used steel in building structures, they tried to increase its strength so as to produce more economic and lighter structures by using more elegant sections. Increase of steel strength is not always useful for all members of a steel structure. In some members under certain conditions, it is needed to reduce the strength as much as possible to improve the behavior of structure. By using very low strength steel according to the Easy-Going Steel (EGS) concept in this research, it is shown that the performance of diagonal Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBFs) improves substantially. For this purpose, a finite element analysis was used to simulate diagonal eccentrically braced frames. Fifteen diagonal eccentrically braced frames were designed through AISC2005. By substitutingvery low strength steelinstead of carbon steel with equal strength in the links, their performance improve fundamentally without any global or local instability in their links.

Abstract The Drawer Bracing System (DBS) is a ductile bracing system that is developed to enhance the seismic performance of braced frames. The system is composed of three parallel plates that are attached together via transfer plates at right angle. Seismic energy is dissipated through the formation of flexural plastic hinges at the two ends of the transfer plates. The parallel plates must have adequate strength and stiffness to prevent global buckling and to remain elastic while transferring forces to transfer plates. Height, width, thickness and the number of the transfer plates may be varied to achieve the desired strength and stiffness of the system. In contrast to common bracing systems, the main advantage of a DBS is the conversion of the axial forces to flexural moments in the dissipating elements. In the present paper, the nonlinear shear response of the DBS is predicted via closed-form formulas for calculation of strength, stiffness and post-yield behavior of the system. These formulations are based on both experimental observations and theoretical analysis. The calculated force-displacement backbone curve is verified to be a very good approximation for predicting the nonlinear shear response of the system.