• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.679-693
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• 2020

This paper investigates the seismic response of buildings equipped with Self-Centering Energy Dissipating (SCED) braces. Two-dimensional models of 3, 6, 12 and 16-story SCED buildings considering both material and geometric nonlinearities are investigated by carrying out pushover and nonlinear time-history analyses. The response indicators of the buildings are studied for weight-scaled ground motions to represent the Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) level and the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) event. The fragility curves of the buildings for two Immediate Occupancy (IO) and Life Safety (LS) performance levels are developed using Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). Results of the nonlinear response history analyses indicate that the maximum inter-story drift occurs at the taller buildings. The mean peak inter-story drift is less than 2% in both hazard levels. High floor acceleration peaks are observed in all the SCED frames regardless of the building height. The overall ductility and ductility demand increase when the number of stories reduces. The results also showed the residual displacement is negligible for all of case study buildings. The 3 and 6-story buildings exhibit desirable performance in IO and LS performance levels according to fragility curves results, while 12 and 16-story frames show poor performance especially in IO level. The results indicated the SCED braces performance is generally better in lower-rise buildings.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.611-628
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• 2022

Energy-dissipative rocking (EDR) columns are a class of seismic mitigation device capable of dissipating seismic energy and preventing weak-story failure of moment resisting frames (MRFs). An EDR consists of two hinge-supported steel columns interconnected by steel dampers along its height. Under earthquakes, the input seismic energy can be dissipated by plastic energy of the steel dampers in the EDR column. However, the unrecoverable plastic deformation of steel dampers generally results in residual drifts in the structural system. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study on an innovative device, namely self-centring energy-dissipative rocking (SC-EDR) column, aiming at enabling self-centring capability of the EDR column by installing a set of shape memory alloy (SMA) tension braces. The working mechanism of the SC-EDR column is presented in detail, and the feasibility of the new device is carefully examined via experimental and numerical studies considering the parameters of the SMA bar diameter and the steel damper plate thickness. The seismic responses including load carrying capacities, stress distributions, base rocking behaviour, source of residual deformation, and energy dissipation are discussed in detail. A rational combination of the steel damper and the SMA tension braces can achieve excellent energy dissipation and self-centring performance.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.265-272
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• 2000

Unbond brace hysteretic dampers are generally used to prevent or decrease structural damage in buildings subjected to strong earthquake by its energy dissipating hysteretic behavior. According to a previous research, the optimum ratio of device yield strength to story yield strength of the combined system has been identified as the most important parameter for characterizing the performance of this device. In this research, the validity and the applicability of the previous research has been investigated and a new approach has been proposed through earthquake response analysis of a steel structure installed with unbond brace type hysteretic damper.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.699-716
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• 2016

Buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are commonly used as lateral force-resisting systems in the structures located in seismic-active regions. The nearly symmetric load-displacement behavior of buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) helps in dissipating the input seismic energy through metallic hysteresis. In this study, an experimental investigation has been conducted on the reduced-core length BRB (RCLBRB) specimens to evaluate their hysteretic and overall performance under gradually increased cyclic loading. Detachable casings are used for the concrete providing confinement to the steel core segments of all test specimens to facilitate the post-earthquake inspection of steel core elements. The influence of variable core clearance and the local detailing of casings on the cyclic performance of RCLBRB specimens has been studied. The RCLBRB specimen with the detachable casing system and a smaller core clearance at the end zone as compared to the central region exhibited excellent hysteretic behavior without any slip. Such RCLBRB showed balanced higher yielding deformed configuration up to a core strain of 4.2% without any premature instability. The strength-adjustment factors for the RCLBRB specimens are found to be nearly same as that of the conventional BRBs as noticed in the past studies. Simple expressions have been proposed based on the regression analysis to estimate the strength-adjustment factors and equivalent damping potential of the RCLBRB specimens.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.683-695
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• 2022

Conventional braces are often used to provide stiffness to structures; however due to buckling they cannot be used as seismic energy dissipating elements. In this study, a seismic energy dissipation device is proposed which is comprised of a bracing member and a steel hysteretic damper made of steel hexagonal plates. The hexagonal shaped designated fuse causes formation of plastic hinges under axial deformation of the brace. The main advantages of this damper compared to conventional metallic dampers and buckling-restrained braces are the stable and controlled energy dissipation capability with ease of manufacture. The mechanical behavior of the damper is formulated first and a design procedure is provided. Next, the theoretical formulation and the efficiency of the damper are verified using finite element (FE) analyses. An analytical model of the damper is established and its efficiency is further investigated by applying it to seismic retrofit of a case study structure. The seismic performance of the structure is evaluated before and after retrofit in terms of maximum interstory drift ratio, top story displacement, residual displacement, and energy dissipation of dampers. Overall, the median of maximum interstory drift ratios is reduced from 3.8% to 1.6% and the residual displacement decreased in the x-direction which corresponds to the predominant mode shape of the structure. The analysis results show that the developed damper can provide cost-effective seismic protection of structures.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.159-167
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• 2019

2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes led Koreans to acknowledge that the Korean peninsula is not an earthquake-free zone anymore. Among various buildings crucial to after-shock recovery, general hospital buildings, especially existing old ones, are very significant so seismic retrofitting of those must be an important issue. Self-centering energy dissipative(SCED) brace is one of retrofitting methods, which consists of tendon with restoring force and friction device capable of dissipating seismic energy. The strength of the SCED brace is that the tendon forces a structure to go back to the original position, which means residual drift can be negligible. The residual drift is a very important parameter to determine usableness of general hospitals after shock. To the contrary, buckling-restrained braces(BRB) are also a very effective way to retrofit because they can resist both compressive and tensile, but residual drift may exist when the steel core yields. On this background, the seismic retrofitting effect of general hospitals reinforced with SCED braces was investigated and compared to that of the BRD in this study. As a result, although the floor acceleration cannot be reduced, the story drift and residual drift, and the shear demand of walls significantly decreased. Consequently, seismic retrofitting by SCED braces are very effective for domestic low-rise general hospitals.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.691-708
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• 2018

An innovative Hybrid Passive Resistive configuration for Truss Girder Frames (HPR-TGFs) is introduced in the present study. The proposed system is principally consisting of Fluid Viscous Dampers (FVDs) and Buckling Restrained Braces (BRBs) as its seismic resistive components. Concurrent utilization of these devices will develop an efficient energy dissipating mechanism which is able to mitigate lateral displacements as well as the base shear, simultaneously. However, under certain circumstances which the presence of FVDs might not be essential, the proposed configuration has the potential to incorporate double BRBs in order to achieve the redundancy of alternative load bearing paths. This study is extending the modern Direct Displacement Based Design (DDBD) procedure as the design methodology for HPR-TGF systems. Based on a series of nonlinear time history analysis, it is demonstrated that the design outcomes are almost identical to the pre-assumed design criteria. This implies that the ultimate characteristics of HPR-TGFs such as lateral stiffness and inter-story drifts are well-proportioned through the proposed design procedure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.455-466
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• 2022

Despite the considerable lateral stiffness and strength of the Concentrically Braced Frame (CBF), it suffers from low ductility and low seismic dissipating energy capacity. The buckling of the diagonal members of the CBF systems under cyclic loading ended up to the shortcoming against seismic loading. Comprehensive researches have been performing to achieve helpful approaches to prevent the buckling of the diagonal member. Among the recommended ideas, metallic damper revealed a better success than other ideas to enhance the behavior of CBFs. While metallic dampers improve the behavior of the CBF system, they increase constructional costs. Therefore, in this paper, a new steel damper with flexural mechanism is proposed, which is investigated experimentally and numerically. Also, a parametrical revision was carried out to evaluate the effect of thickness, slenderness ratio, angle of the main plate, and height of the main plates on the proposed damper. For the parametrical study, 45 finite element models were analyzed and considered. Experimental results, as well as the numerical results, indicated that the proposed damper enjoys a stable hysteresis loop without any degradation up to a high rotation equal to around 31% that is significantly considerable. Moreover, it showed a suitable performance in case of ductility and energy dissipating. Besides, the necessary formulas to design the damper, the required relations were proposed to design the elements outside the damper to ensure the damper acts as a ductile fuse.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.479-491
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• 2018

Shape memory alloys (SMA) exhibit superelasticity which refers to the capability of entirely recovering large deformation upon removal of applied forces and dissipating input energy during the cyclic loading reversals when the environment is above the austenite finish temperature. This property is increasingly favored by the earthquake engineering community, which is currently developing resilient structures with prompt recovery and affordable repair cost after earthquakes. Compared with the other SMAs, NiTi SMAs are widely deemed as the most promising candidate in earthquake engineering. This paper contributes to evaluate the seismic performance of properly designed concentrically braced frames (CBFs) equipped with NiTi SMA braces under earthquake ground motions corresponding to frequently-occurred, design-basis and maximum-considered earthquakes. An ad hoc seismic design approach that was previously developed for structures with idealized SMAs was introduced to size the building members, by explicitly considering the strain hardening characteristics of NiTi SMA particularly. The design procedure was conducted to compliant with a suite of ground motions associated with the hazard level of design-basis earthquake. A total of four six-story CBFs were designed by setting different ductility demands for SMA braces while designating with a same interstory drift target for the structural systems. The analytical results show that all the designed frames successfully met the prescribed seismic performance objectives, including targeted maximum interstory drift, uniform deformation demand over building height, eliminated residual deformation, controlled floor acceleration, and slight damage in the main frame. In addition, this study indicates that the strain hardening behavior does not necessarily impose undesirable impact on the global seismic performance of CBFs with SMA braces.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.131-138
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• 2006

Structural bracing concept equipped with a new and efficient friction based energy dissipation device is referred to Friction SliP Brace (FSB) where the behavior of the brace components is elastic until the axial resistant force in the brace exceeds the friction force developed at the frictional interface of the device. In this study, the FSB concept is modified and new type of hybrid energy dissipation device, the Active Friction SliP Braces (AFSB), is described. The FSB is by far improved in the AFSB by inclusion of an active clamping mechanism on the friction interface. The clamping action regulated by the developed algorithm is altered during the response of the building. The results indicate that the action of dissipating vibrational energy in the AFSB impacts on the response at later cycles by keeping the drift amplitudes at much lower levels, revealing overshooting problem due to its early slippage. Providing predetermined constant incremental strengths to the building by AFSB medium improves response by reducing drift amplitudes and base shear under small and medium amplitude ground accelerations.