With the increasing requirements for seismic performance of building structures, the seismic design of reinforced concrete structures is particularly important. In this study, the dynamic elastic-plastic analysis of reinforced concrete frame structures was carried out using ABAQUS finite element software to investigate the effects of different bracing forms on the seismic performance of the structures. An explicit dynamic analysis method was adopted to analyze the time-dependent response of 5-story and 10-story frame structures using El Centro seismic waves and Kyushu 3D Kumamoto seismic waves in Japan as input loads. It was found that the frame with herringbone bracing had the greatest lateral stiffness under the 9-degree seismic action, reaching four times that of the pure frame, while the frames with cross-bracing and V-bracing had lateral stiffnesses that were 2.6 and 2.3 times that of the pure frame, respectively. In addition, the analysis shows that the maximum floor displacements range from -300 mm to 200 mm for 5-story frames and from -400 mm to 500 mm for 10-story frames, showing good seismic performance. The maximum storey displacements were 76mm and 60mm respectively, which were less than the angular limit of plastic storey displacement of 0.02. The results of the study show that different forms of center bracing can significantly improve the seismic performance of the frames.
