Vibration analysis of steel frames with semi-rigid connections on an elastic foundation

An investigation on the combined effect of foundation type, foundation flexibility, axial load and PR (semi-rigid) connections on the natural frequencies of steel frames is presented. These effects were investigated using a suitable modified FE program for cases where the foundation flexibility, foundation connectivity, and semi-rigid connections could be treated as equivalent linear springs. The effect of axial load on the natural frequency of a structure was found to be significant for slender structures subjected to high axial loads. In general, if columns of medium slenderness are designed without consideration of axial load effects, the frequency of the structure will be overestimated. Studies on the 3-story Los Angeles PR SAC frame indicate that the assumption of rigid connections at beam-column and column-base interfaces, as well as the assumption of a rigid foundation, can lead to significant errors if simplified design procedures are used. These errors in an equivalent static analysis are expected to lead to even more serious problems when considering the effect of higher modes under a non-linear dynamic analysis.