A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering of the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1975

The structural response of a regular multi-story frame to combined constant vertical and monotonically increasing horizontal loads has been investigated in this study. Complete analysis of the frame is carried out by piecewise elastic analysis making use of the load increment technique. For a subframe considered, only one joint rotation per floor is assumed and this makes the formulation of the governing equation simple, from the slope deflection equations in view of the equilibrium conditions. Two possible avenues of approach to solve the joint rotations from the governing equation at all levels of the frame are presented. Also empirical formulas are proposed for the determination of the joint rotations, from the results obtained in the parametric study. The validity of the Merchant Rankine formula has been verified and the use of it to determine the maximum horizontal load is illustrated. A simple way of estimating the frame drift at the maximum horizontal load level is discussed, and thereby an estimation of the lateral sway at every floor level could be easily made. On the whole, this study provides valuable information for the designer to carry out the preliminary design.