The hysteretic characteristics of a structural system of a building must be well understood in order to effectively mitigate the damage caused by seismic activities. Modular steel construction is fast evolving as an effective alternative to traditional on-site construction, especially in low to medium-rise buildings where repetitive units are required. In this building form, modular units are built and finished under a controlled environment and are combined on-site to form larger building structures. The lateral resistance of this steel building type is often achieved by adding diagonal braces but the detailing requirements differ significantly from the traditional counterpart. This may be critical to its performance under earthquake ground motions. In this study, key response and performance characteristics such as the available strength, stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation in braced frames of modular steel buildings are evaluated under reversed cyclic loading. Comparison is drawn with the hysteretic behaviour of concentrically braced frames in regular steel buildings. The analysis suggests that the unique vertical connection of different units would need to be carefully addressed in design in order to fully develop the lateral seismic resistance of the modular steel braced system.
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