ABSTRACT
In this work the attention is focused on the seismic performance of a three-story steel frame equipped with either steel or shape-memory alloy (SMA) braces. A number of non-linear time-history analyses are carried out and the dynamic performance of the structure is judged through computation of the interstory drift as well as the residual drift. The efficacy of the new materials in reducing earthquake-induced vibrations is numerically evaluated by studying the role of superelastic hysteresis.