Interim Guidelines:

Evaluation, Repair, Modification and

Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

2. DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS & NOTATIONS

This Chapter provides the definition of terms used throughout these Interim Guidelines. In
addition, abbreviations and symbols, used in other sections of the Interim Guidelines are listed
here, together with their typical usage.

2.1 Definitions
As used in this document, the terms defined below shall be interpreted to have the meaning
indicated, unless specifically indicated elsewhere in this document to have other meaning in a specific
context.

2.1.1 Administrative

The definitions of this section apply to the titles of persons involved in the design, construction,
regulation, or use of buildings and to the standards, codes and ordinances by which such use is
regulated.

Building Code The locally enforced set of regulations governing the design, construction, alteration,
occupancy and repair of building structures.

Commentary: Although some municipalities and government agencies develop and

maintain independent building codes, most building construction in the United States
is regulated under locally adopted editions of one of three model building codes: the
Uniform Building Code (UBC), the National Building Code (NBC) and the Standard
Building Code (SBC). The UBC has been used as a model in this advisory because
most buildings damaged by the Northridge Earthquake were designed under earlier
editions of that code, and because the seismic design regulations contained in the
other two codes, were until 1993, based on those contained in the UBC. In 1993,
both the NBC and SBC adopted seismic design regulations based on the NEHRP
Recommended Provisions for the Development of Seismic Regulations for New
Buildings (Building Seismic Safety Council - 1991). Where references to the
UBC provisions are contained in these Interim Guidelines, they are generally to
the 1994 edition of that document, unless another edition is specifically
identified. Where these Interim Guidelines make reference to specific provisions
in the UBC, parallel provisions in the NEHRP Recommended Provisions are
generally identified in {parentheses}, where parallel provisions exist. Note that
the formulae and requirements contained in these parallel provisions are not
always identical, and caution should be exercised when referencing the NEHRP
Recommended Provisions from these Interim Guidelines.

Building Official That officer or authorized representative who has been appointed with legal authority
to regulate the construction, alteration, occupancy and use of building structures within
a recognized state, county, or municipality.

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
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Building Owner That person, corporation or agency holding legal title to the property being constructed,
inspected, or repaired, or persons designated with authority to act on their behalf with
regard to the building.

Contract Documents The drawings, specifications and contractual terms under which the responsibilities of
the various parties in a project to construct or modify a building are defined.

Contractor That corporation, partnership, or person retained by the Building Owner to manage
and/or perform construction work on a building.

Engineer of Record The structural engineer in responsible charge of the preparation of drawings and
specifications for the inspection, repair, modification or construction of a structure.

Erector A contractor performing the erection, repair and/or modification of structural steel
frames.

Evaluation The process, including preliminary screening, on-site inspection, and structural
analysis, of determining if a building has been structurally damaged, the effect of
damage on the buildings integrity, and development of strategies for the occupancy,
structural repair and/or modification of the building.

Fabricator A contractor performing fabrication of structural steel elements to be incorporated in a

structural steel frame.

Inspection On-site investigation of the condition of a structure (or components of a structure)

through direct visual observation, aided as necessary by special non-destructive testing
techniques.

Owners Inspector A welding inspector retained by the Building Owner to perform quality assurance
inspections of weldments. The AWS D1.1 Code defines this individual as the
Verification Inspector.

Peer Review An independent technical review of project construction documents as well as

supporting data, calculations and assumptions, conducted by structural engineers and
intended to provide the Owner and Engineer of Record with an opinion as to the extent
that the design complies with applicable standards of care and is likely to achieve its
intended objectives.

Special Inspector An Inspector employed by the Building Owner under the requirements of Section 1701
of the Building Code. When such person performs special inspections related to
weldments, he/she shall possess the qualifications noted for a Welding Inspector.

Structural Engineer A person holding professional engineering registration with the state having
jurisdiction, for the practice of structural engineering. The person should have
particular training, knowledge and expertise in the structural design of buildings and
structures. In some states such a person may hold registration as a Civil Engineer or
Professional Engineer.

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Interim Guidelines:
Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

Welding Code American Welding Society publication ANSI/AWS D1.1-94, Structural Welding
Code - Steel, 1994 Edition.

Welding Engineer A person with particular training, knowledge and expertise in metallurgy, the joining of
metal elements to each other by the process of welding, and non-destructive testing
techniques.

Welding Inspector A person meeting the requirements of AWS D1.1, Section 6.1.3.1 (and certified by
ICBO where applicable) to perform inspections of structural steel weldments. In AWS
D1.1, this person is known as Inspector.

Welder A person qualified to perform welding in accordance with the provisions of AWS
D1.1.

2.1.2 Technical

The definitions of this section indicate the terms by which specific structural components and
elements are indicated in this document.

Assembly The substructure of a steel frame that occurs at a floor level and consists of a single
column and one or more floor girders and/or beams that attach directly to it.

Backing A material or device placed against the back side of the joint, or at both sides of a weld
in electroslag welding, to support and retain molten weld metal. The material may be
partially fused or remain unfused during welding, and may be either metal or nonmetal.

Backup Bar A non-preferred term, in common use, for a steel bar used as backing in a complete
joint penetration weld. More appropriate terminology is steel backing.

Chord A direct tension or compression element placed at diaphragm edges to resist flexural
demands on the diaphragm.

Collector A structural element used to accumulate shear forces from a diaphragm and distribute
them to vertical elements such as frames or walls located along a common line. Also
see Strut and Tie.

Connection The attachment of one structural element, for example a beam, to another, for example
a column. As typically used in this document, connection means the attachment of a
beam to a column for moment resistance. Important components of this connection
include the beam itself, the beam shear tab, the column and its associated panel zone,
continuity and doubler plates, and any additional plates used to join these elements
together. Other types of connections include bracing connections, gravity connections,
base plate connections and column splice connections.

Damage Degradation in the strength or stiffness of a structural element or alteration of the

configuration of the structure or its elements resulting from structural loading, such as
induced by an earthquake.

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Damage Index A numerical index used to quantify the amount of degradation a moment resisting
connection (or a group of moment resisting connections) has experienced. A value of 0
indicates no damage and a value of 10, total damage.

Design Basis Earthquake Earthquake ground motion with a probability of exceedance at a site of 10% in 50
years. Such ground motions has an average return period of 475 years.

Diaphragm A horizontal (or nearly horizontal) element of the lateral force resisting system used to
distribute lateral loads to the vertical elements of the lateral force resisting system.

Drift The total lateral deformation of a structure over its height.

Drift Index Dimensionless quantity indicating the ratio of a structures lateral deformation to its
height.

Dual System A structural system in which lateral load resistance is provided by a moment resisting
frame in parallel with one or more braced frames and/or shear walls, and meeting the
criteria of UBC-94 Section 1627.6.5.

Ductility The ability of a material, component, element or structure to deform inelastically

beyond its yield strength without significant loss in load carrying ability.

Electrode A component of the electrical circuit that terminates at the arc, molten conductive slag,
or base metal.

End Dam A small plate located at the edge of a beam flange to column flange joint, oriented
perpendicular to the joint and intended to serve as a boundary for weld deposition.

Commentary: End dams are a mis-application of the requirement for weld tabs that
was adopted by some erectors in Southern California. End dams as such are not
mentioned in the AWS D1.1 code and they do not constitute weld tabs as required
and defined in the code.

Expected Yield Stress The average stress at which material conforming to an ASTM specification will exhibit
yield behavior, as determined by statistical evaluation of production samples.

Flux A material used to hinder or prevent the formation of oxides and other undesirable
substances in molten metal and on solid metal surfaces, and to dissolve or otherwise
facilitate the removal of such substances.

Flux-Cored Arc An arc welding process that produces coalescence of metals by heating them with an
Welding arc between a continuous filler metal electrode and the work. Shielding is provided by
a flux contained within the tubular electrode. Additional shielding may or may not be
obtained from an externally supplied gas or gas mixture.

Fully Restrained A beam to column connection with sufficient rigidity to hold the original
Connection angles between the intersecting members virtually unchanged at loads approaching the
strength of the weakest member.

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

Gas Shielded FCAW A flux-cored arc welding process variation in which additional shielding is obtained
from an externally supplied gas or gas mixture.

Group A set consisting of those moment resisting connections in a building primarily intended
to resist lateral forces in a given direction of building response, and selected as having
similar seismic response characteristics, and therefore, similar probability of being
damaged in an earthquake

Gravity Connection A connection designed to transmit gravity loads from one structural element to another,
but not intended to participate in the lateral force resisting system for the structure.

Heat Affected Zone The portion of the base metal whose mechanical properties or microstructure have been
altered by the heat of welding, brazing, soldering, or thermal cutting.

Heat Treatment A controlled heating and cooling of a metal, usually involving re-crystallization.

Incipient Root Crack A small planar discontinuity or cracking at the root of a weld.

Interpass Temperature In a multipass weld, the temperature of the weld area between weld passes.

Interstory Drift The lateral deformation of a structure within a given story.

Interstory Drift Index The drift index for a particular story of a structure.

Joint The juncture of one piece of base metal (for example a beam flange) to another (for
example a column flange).

Lamellar Discontinuities Defects in rolled structural shapes or plate, typically consisting of non-metallic sulfide
and oxide inclusions which have been flattened by the rolling process and aligned
parallel to the direction of rolling.

Lamellar Tear A subsurface terrace and step-like crack in the base metal with a basic orientation
parallel to the wrought surface caused by tensile stresses in the through-thickness
direction of the base metal weakened by the presence of small dispersed, planar
shaped, nonmetallic inclusions parallel to the metal surface.

Lateral Force Those elements of a structure which are intended to provide lateral strength
Resisting System and stiffness for the resistance of lateral forces due to wind or earthquake.

Liquid Dye A method of NDT in which a highly fluid, red dye penetrant is sprayed on the
Penetrant Testing surface of a joint to detect open surface defects. (PT)

Magnetic Particle A method of NDT which uses a flux field and iron powder to detect surface
Testing and sub-surface discontinuities. (MT)

Magnitude A scale indicating the energy released by an earthquake.

Maximum Capable The most severe ground motion likely to be experienced at a site, given the

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations Design of Steel Moment Frames

Earthquake known seismologic and geotectonic environment. This may be determined by

deterministic methods in regions with well defined seismic sources, or by probabilistic
methods. If probabilistic methods are used, it may be taken as that level of ground
motion with a 10% probability of exceedance in 100 years. Such ground motion has
an average return period of approximately 1,000 years.

Metallurgical Stress A significant deviation in the mechanical properties (usually hardness and
Riser micro-structure) between two adjacent regions in a weldment. These may result from
arc strikes, improperly made tack welds, and improperly prepared thermally cut
surfaces.

Minimum Specified The lower bound of acceptable yield strength permitted by ASTM
Yield Strength specifications, as measured by simple tensile test in accordance to ASTM
requirements.

Modification A structural alteration intended to improve the strength, stiffness, or energy dissipation
capacity of a structure and/or its elements.

Moment Frame A continuous plane of framing in which the beams are joined to the columns with
moment resisting connections.

Moment Magnitude A scale indicating the energy released by an earthquake. Moment magnitude can be
calculated based on the surface area of fault rupture amount of slip across the surface,
and the stress drop during the event. For moderate magnitude events (<7) moment
magnitude and Richter or local magnitude are approximately the same. Above that
level, moment magnitude is a more accurate representation.

Notch Toughness The ability of a material to absorb energy (usually when loaded dynamically) in the
presence of a flaw.

Ordinary Moment A moment-resisting frame not meeting the requirements of UBC-94 Section 2211.7
Resisting Frame

Panel Zone In a moment-resisting beam-column connection, that portion of the column web (or
webs) effective in developing the flexural stresses from the girder(s) through shear
behavior.

Partially Restrained A connection between beams and columns that does not possess sufficient
Connection rigidity to hold virtually unchanged the original angles between the members at load
levels approaching the strength of the weaker member.

Peening The mechanical working of metals using impact blows.

Plastic Hinge In a flexural element, that region along a beams span at which flexural yielding
occurs.

Plastic Moment The moment that causes a plastic hinge to form in a flexural member.

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

Plastic Rotation The angular deformation which occurs in a plastic hinge, once yielding has initiated.
Expressed in radians.

Potentially Hazardous A building declared by the building official to be considered hazardous but not yet
evaluated by a structural engineer in accordance with these Interim Guidelines.

Postheating The application of heat to an assembly after welding, brazing, soldering, thermal
spraying, or thermal cutting.

Preheat The heat applied to the base metal or substrate to attain and maintain preheat
temperature.

Preheat Temperature A specified temperature that the base metal must attain in the welding, brazing,
soldering, thermal-strain, or cutting area immediately before these operations are
performed.

Quality Assurance The auditing of the Contractor/Fabricator/Erectors quality control system and
procedures, usually performed by the Owners Inspector or Special Inspector.

Quality Control The Contractor/Fabricator/Erectors quality program.

Radiographic Testing An NDT process in which X-rays or gamma rays are passed through a weldment to
expose a film, which when developed can indicate the presence of discontinuities and
defects. (RT)

Repair Construction work intended to restore a damaged structure or structural element to

approximately the same configuration, stiffness, and strength that existed prior to the
onset of damage.

Rigid Connection See Fully Restrained Connection

Runoff Tab A non-preferred usage for weld tab.

Self Shielded FCAW A flux-cored arc welding process variation in where shielding is exclusively provided
by a flux contained within the tubular electrode.

Semi-Rigid Connection Same as Partially Restrained Connection

Shielded Metal Arc An arc welding process that produces coalescence of metals by heating them
Welding with an arc supplied between a covered metal electrode and the work. Shielding is
obtained from decomposition of the electrode coating.

Special Moment- A welded moment-resisting frame meeting the requirements of UBC-94 Section 2211.7
Resisting Frame

Steel Backing Backing comprised of steel.

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 Interim Guidelines:
Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
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Strength The capacity of a section to resist applied axial loads, shears and/or moments, as
indicated in UBC-94 section 2211.4.2

Stress Relief Uniform heating of a structure or a portion thereof to a sufficient temperature to relieve
the major portion of the residual stresses, followed by uniform cooling.

Stop Drill Drilling a hole at the end of a crack to stop it from running.

Strut A compressive element, provided to control differential displacements between two

elements of a structural system.

Through Thickness For elements of hot rolled steel shapes and plates, a term referring to stresses or strains
imposed on the element perpendicular to a plane aligned with the direction of rolling.

Tie A tensile element, typically placed in a diaphragm, to provide continuity, but also
provided at foundation level to control differential lateral displacements of individual
foundations.

Toughness The ability of a smooth member (unnotched) to absorb energy, usually when loaded
slowly.

Ultimate Tensile The maximum load divided by the original cross-sectional area of the specimen.
Strength

Ultrasonic Testing An NDT process in which high frequency sound waves are reflected through a material
and recorded by an instrument to indicate the presence of discontinuities (UT).

Welding Specification A specification which sets the general requirements for welding work performed on a
project, including the responsibilities of individuals and the processes which may be
used. This specification is part of the contract documents.

Welding Procedure A rigorous written specification of all important welding parameters for a
Specification given welded connection including welding process, material thickness and fit-up of
parts, welding position, electrode type and stick out, voltage, amperage, polarity,
preheat and interpass temperatures, etc.

Welded Steel Moment- A plane (or nearly so) frame structure deriving lateral load stability from rigid
Resisting Frame, interconnection of the beams and columns (WSMF). Rigid connections may consist
Welded Steel Moment either of fully welded connections or connections
Frame which are partially welded and partially bolted. This includes both ordinary moment-
resisting frames (OMRFs) and special moment-resisting frames (SMRFs) as defined in
the Uniform Building Code.

Weld Tab Additional material, upon which a weld may be initiated or terminated.

Yield Stress The average tensile stress during yielding in the plastic range, and/or the stress
determined in a tension test when the strain reaches 0.005 in. per in.

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
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Yield Strength The uniaxial tensile stress at which a material exhibits a specified limiting deviation
from the proportionality of stress to strain. Deviation expressed in terms of strain.

2.2 Abbreviations
When used in this document, abbreviations shall refer to the following terms:

AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

AASHTO FCP A document published by AASHTO for the fabrication of fracture-critical,

non-redundant steel bridges, often called the Fracture Control Plan.

AISC American Institute of Steel Construction

ANSI/AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code - Steel, published by the American Welding Society

ASNT American Society for Nondestructive Testing

ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials

ATC Applied Technology Council

ATLSS NSF Center on Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems at Lehigh
University

AWS American Welding Society

CJP Complete Joint Penetration

CUREe California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering

EBF Eccentric Braced Frame

EGW Electro Gas Welding

ESW Electro Slag Welding

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FCAW Flux Cored Arc Welding

FCAW-g Flux Cored Arc Welding - Gas Shielded

FCAW-ss Flux Cored Arc Welding - Self Shielded

GMAW Gas Metal Arc Welding

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
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HAZ Heat Affected Zone

ICBO International Conference of Building Officials

LAST Lowest Anticipated Service Temperature

MT Magnetic Particle Testing

NEHRP National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program

NDE Nondestructive Examination.

NDT Nondestructive Testing

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NSF National Science Foundation

OMRF Ordinary Moment-Resisting Frame

PGA Peak Ground Acceleration, horizontal unless otherwise specified.

PT Liquid Dye Penetrant Testing

RT Radiographic Testing

SAC A joint venture of SEAOC, ATC and CUREe

SAW Submerged Arc Welding

SEAOC Structural Engineers Association of California

SMAW Shielded Metal Arc Welding

SMRF Special Moment-Resisting Frame

SSPC Structural Shape Producers Council

UBC Uniform Building Code

UT Ultrasonic testing

VI Visual Inspection

WPS Welding Procedure Specification

WSMF Welded Steel Moment Frame

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Interim Guidelines:
Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

W Designation for a wide flange structural shape

WT Designation for a structural T section cut from a wide flange cross section

2.3 Notations

In the design of modifications to existing WSMF structures, a coefficient that

accounts for strain hardening and modeling uncertainty.

In the design of new WSMF structures, a coefficient to adjust specified yield

stress to an expected mean value for the material grade, and to account for
strain hardening and modeling uncertainty.

The standard deviation for the defect indices in a group of inspected

connections.

b A factor which represents the number of multiples of the standard deviation for
a normal distribution above the mean that would be required to exceed a
damage index D of 33%.

bf Width of a beam flange - inches

d Damage repair cost for a building, expressed as a % of building replacement

cost.

dj A damage index, assigned to connection j, and used to determine the overall

damage index D within a structure as well as to determine if repair and or
modification is warranted.

davg The mean value of the damage index for a group, considering all connections
inspected in the group

fa The axial stress in a column

k The total number of connections in a group of connections, at a typical floor in

the group

ki The total number of connections in a group at floor i

mi The number of inspected connections in a group at floor i including

additional connections inspected due to their proximity to damaged
connections

p The number of floors in a building

n The number of connections in a group, inspected as part of an initial sample

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations Design of Steel Moment Frames

s Standard deviation for material strength parameters, based on industry study

tf Thickness of the flange of a beam section - inches.

Aa Effective peak ground acceleration coefficient, contained in building codes

based on the NEHRP Provisions.

D The average damage index for a group of connections at a typical floor.

Di A damage index representing the proportional damage to the connections in

the lateral force resisting system in one group of connections (or in one
horizontal direction) at a floor, based on combining the damage to inspected
connections at that floor and the average observed damage at other floors, to
all uninspected connections in the group at the floor.

Dmax The maximum damage index for a group of connections at any floor.

Fy Specified minimum uniaxial tensile yield stress.

Fya Actual yield stress of component in an existing building

Fye Expected yield stress of component in a new building

Fym Mean yield strength for specified material, based on industry published data

L Width of a frame bay - ft (meters)

L Distance between plastic hinges along a beam - ft (meters)

M The magnitude of an earthquake.

Mc The moment demand at the center of the column when a beam mechanism is
formed

Me The design moment for a connection.

Mp That bending moment which causes a plastic hinge to form in a flexural element
of a frame, at minimum specified yield stress.

Mpr The bending moment expected to cause a plastic hinge to form in a flexural
element of a frame, considering the expected yield stress.

Mw The moment magnitude of an earthquake.

P The probability that damage to connections on at least one floor has

resulted in a damage index Di of 1/3 or more.

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Evaluation, Repair, Modification and
Design of Steel Moment Frames Chapter 2 - Definitions, Abbreviations & Notations

Pf The probability that the damage to connections at any floor have resulted in
a damage index Di of 1/3 or more.

S The standard deviation for the damage indices of a the set of inspected
connections belonging to a group, at one floor level.

T Fundamental period of vibration - seconds

TI Fundamental period of vibration of a base isolated structural system -

seconds

Z Seismic zone coefficient defined in the UBC, and representative of the

effective peak ground acceleration produced by a design earthquake.

Zb Plastic section modulus of the beam

Zc Plastic section modulus of the column

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