Opportunity and effectiveness of using High strength steel in seismic resistant building frames

High strength steels - HSS, with yield stress of 420-690 MPa or greater, have been available for many years. Actually, IPE and H profiles of steel grades S420 and S460 are currently produced in Europe. There are a lot of applications of HSS in bridge construction, but only a few in building. In seismic design, steel building frames are designed as dissipative structures by the fact that plastic deformation are allowed to develop in specific members, of which behaviour can be predicted and controlled by proper calculation and detailing. The members designed to remain in elastic range during the earthquake, as the columns in multi-storey frames could be, are usually characterised by a high demand in strength. For such kind of members the use of HSS represents a real and effective opportunity.