Low-rise steel moment frames with energy-dissipating exterior walls: Computer modelling and seismic performance assessment

•A computer model was established and validated for the exterior wall system.•The exterior wall reduces transient displacement responses of the example building.•The exterior wall helps reduce residual displacements of the example building.•The equal-energy rule can be considered in future design of the exterior wall system. This research focused on a new type of energy-dissipating exterior wall system for enhancing the seismic performance of low-rise steel moment-resisting frame (MRF) buildings. The computer model for the energy-dissipating exterior wall system was developed based on simple elements and existing material models. Adequacy of the computer model was confirmed by the published test results. To address how the exterior wall system would affect seismic performance of low-rise steel MRF buildings, a representative 2-story MRF demonstration building was selected. The exterior wall system was introduced in the demonstration building for rehabilitation purpose. Computer models for the original and rehabilitated systems were developed. Based on the results from computer simulations of the original and rehabilitated systems, it was found that the energy-dissipating exterior wall system can reduce both transient and residual inter-story drift angle responses in the demonstration building. Moreover, based on the analysis results, a useful criterion denoted as the equal-energy rule was established for future design of the exterior wall system to achieve the intended transient inter-story drift angle responses allowed by a certain performance objective in low-rise steel MRF buildings.