Chapter 10: Structural Steel Buildings

The inherent ductility of steel as a material and the relative modernity of steel construction means that structural steel buildings are often considered to be seismically resilient. However, major earthquakes over the last several decades have shown that this is not always the case. Following a brief overview of structural steel construction, the observed seismic vulnerabilities of such buildings are discussed with reference to the Northridge, Kobe and Christchurch earthquakes. It is shown that poor design and construction practices can lead to steel buildings responding in a non-ductile manner. Specific local retrofit techniques to address the known deficiencies are then provided, such as addition of haunches, use of reduced beam sections, columns base upgrades, and steel shear walls.