Design example for a reusable seismic frame design

Abstract

Circular design involves the use of innovative construction techniques that can be easily disassembled, reused, or recycled at the end of their useful life. This paper focuses on the development of the reusable design case-study concept for the seismic frame design as typically used in New Zealand’s stee-frame structures. The paper proposed a reusable optimized design for the entire seismic frame. When optimizing welded structural dimensions, whether in terms of weight or cost, the result is a reduction in the weight of the steel used. This weight reduction directly correlates to a reduction in environmental impact since the environmental impact is directly related to the mass of the structure. The environmental impact of welding technology also depends on the size of the weld, which indirectly affects the mass of the structure. Since the dependence on mass is present in all three areas, but in different ways, a multi-objective function optimization approach was used in this paper to consider these three areas together while partly considering them independently.