Seismic Design of Stainless Steel Structures

Stainless steel has not been as used as a mainstream structural material since last decades. Mainly, it has been used because of its corrosion resistance. Another determining stainless steel property is its yet ductility, a very interesting capacity to achieve a good structural response against the seismic action.
The principal aim of this work is to evaluate the benefits of using stainless steel in framed structures against the seismic action. The study comprehends a rigorous study of different frames to be able to give some conclusions about the suitability of stainless steel in seismic design. 12 pushover and modal analyses have been carried out. The software used has been SAP2000. The results obtained from the pushover analyses show the suitability of using stainless steel in seismic design. The frames modeled in stainless steel present higher values of overstrength and ultimate base shear force, ductility values are higher as well.