• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.343-356
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• 2016

As the common cast-in-place construction works fails to meet the enormous construction demand under rapid economic growth, the development of prefabricated structure instead becomes increasingly promising in China. For the prefabricated structure, its load carrying connection joint play a key role in maintaining the structural integrity. Therefore, a novel end plate bolt connecting joint between fully prefabricated pre-stressed concrete beam and high-strength reinforcement-confined concrete column was proposed. Under action of low cycle repeated horizontal loadings, comparative tests are conducted on 6 prefabricated pre-stressed intermediate joint specimens and 1 cast-in-place joint specimen to obtain the specimen failure modes, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, ductility factor, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity and other seismic indicators, and the seismic characteristics of the new-type prefabricated beam-column connecting joint are determined. The test results show that all the specimens for end plate bolt connecting joint between fully prefabricated pre-stressed concrete beam and high-strength reinforcement-confined concrete column have realized the design objectives of strong column weak beam. The hysteretic curves for specimens are good, indicating desirable ductility and energy dissipation capacity and seismic performances, and the research results provide theoretical basis and technical support for the promotion and application of prefabricated assembly frames in the earthquake zone.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.863-882
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• 2016

This study aims to introduce a new bracing system by which even super-wide frames with large openings can be braced. The proposed system, hereafter called Cable-Pulley Brace (CPB), is a tension-only bracing system with a rectilinear configuration. In CPB, a wire rope passes through a rectilinear path around the opening(s) and connects the lower corner of the frame to its opposite upper one. CPB is a secondary load resisting system with a nonlinear-elastic hysteretic behavior due to its initial pre-tension load. As a result, the required energy dissipation would be provided by the MRF itself, and the main intention of using CPB is to contribute to the initial and post-yield stiffness of the whole system. Using a stiffness calibration technique, optimum placement of the CPBs is discussed to yield a uniform displacement demand along the height of the structure. A displacement-based design procedure is proposed by which the MRF with CPB can be designed to achieve a uniform distribution of inter-story drifts with predefined values. Obtained results indicated that CPB leads to significant reductions in maximum and residual deformations of the MRF at the expense of minor increase in the maximum base shear and developed axial force demands in the columns. In the case of a typical 5-story residential building, compared to SMRF system, CPB system reduces maximum amounts of inter-story and residual drifts by 35% and 70%, respectively. Moreover, openings of the frame are not interrupted by the CPB. This is the most appealing feature of the proposed bracing system from architectural point of view.