An Overview on Performamce Control and Efficient Design of Lateral Resisting Moment Frames

This paper presents a brief overview of the recently developed performance-control method of moment frame design subjected to monotonously increasing lateral loading. The final product of any elastic-plastic analysis is a nonlinear loaddisplacement diagram associated with a progressive failure mechanism, which may or may not be as desirable as expected. Analytically derived failure mechanisms may include such undesirable features as soft story failure, partial failure modes, overcollapse, etc. The problem is compounded if any kind of performance control, e.g., drift optimization, material savings or integrity assessment is also involved. However, there is no reason why the process can not be reversed by first selecting a desirable collapse mechanism, then working backwards to select members that would lead to the desired outcome. This article provides an overview of the newly developed Performance control methodology of design for lateral resisting frameworks with a view towards integrity control and prevention of premature failure due to propagation of plasticity and progressive P-delta effects.