This paper deals with seismic response of dual steel frames with dissipative metal shear panels. The main goal is to provide design indications accounting for the main behavioural aspects of metal shear panels. To this purpose, numerical Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDAs) using historical records have been carried out on two different steel frames, which have been properly designed in order to comply with specific design criteria. The outcomes highlight that metal shear panels allow a significant increment of collapse peak ground accelerations as well as a general reduction of both permanent and transient story drifts. The paper concludes with the evaluation of the equivalent q-behaviour factors to be used for simplified analysis. As it could be expected, a significant increment (up to 150%) have been determined in case of structures endowed with metal shear panels.
