Design variables influencing the seismic performance of buckling-restrained braced frame building archetypes and simplified tools to estimate their demands

This study examines and quantifies the influence of key design variables like drift limit, brace configuration, brace angle, etc. on the seismic performance of buckling-restrained braced frame (BRBF) buildings. The effect of these design variables on peak storey drift ratio (PSDR), peak floor acceleration (PFA), mean annual frequency of collapse ( λ c ), and expected annual loss (EAL) is characterised using 25 BRBF building archetypes. Measures that increase structural stiffness, such as designing to lower drift limits and using moment-resisting beam–column connections, are shown to mitigate collapse risk and economic losses. Most of the buildings designed to drift limits above 2.0 % following conventional practice failed to meet the collapse performance objective of λ c < 1 0 − 4 prescribed by the New Zealand seismic design standard. Even fewer buildings met the loss target of EAL < 0.1 % prescribed by the NZ low-damage seismic design guidelines. Finally, simplified PSDR and PFA prediction tools are developed to enable demand-targeted BRBF structural and non-structural design for enhanced seismic resilience. These tools achieve R 2 = 0 . 95 and prediction errors below 10 %. When compared to existing demand prediction methods found in the New Zealand design code and FEMA P-58, the developed PSDR prediction model is comparable in accuracy and precision but simpler to use. The PFA prediction models, however, are more accurate and precise.