A design procedure for tied braced frames

The paper deals with the analysis of the seismic behaviour and design of tied braced frames (TBFs). The behavioural properties of TBFs are described and a comparison drawn with standard eccentrically braced frames. A design procedure is then proposed that aims to achieve optimal collapse seismic behaviour, i.e. a global collapse mechanism characterized by uniform plastic rotations of links. The procedure is based on the displacement‐based approach so as to achieve direct and efficient control of the peak ground acceleration of collapse. Applications are carried out on systems with different numbers of storeys and lengths of links to obtain confirmation of the accuracy of the design hypotheses and methodologies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.