Current seismic provisions allow structures to experience inelastic deformation as a means of energy dissipation during severe earthquakes. The energy dissipation capacity of a structural system is mainly dependent on the ductility of the structure. The ductility reduction factor (Rμ) is one of the key factors to determine the strength reduction factor(R) of structural systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ductility reduction factors for suspended zipper-braced frames. To this end, 1-, 5-, 10- and 15-story models including suspended zipper-braced frames, MDOF shear buildings and SDOF systems are developed to represent a wide range of building structures. More than 1,130,000 dynamic analyses have been conducted subjected to 20 different synthetic spectrum-compatible seismic records and the ductility reduction factors of these models have been calculated. Based on the results of this study, a simple equation is proposed to calculate the ductility reduction factor of suspended zipper-braced frames. The results show the efficiency of this the proposed equation in estimating the ductility reduction factors of suspended ZBF structures.
