Numerical Study of the Seismic Efficiency of Buckling-Restrained Braces for Near and Far-Fault Inputs

Abstract

Buckling-restrained braces are commonly installed in building structures as concentric diagonal or chevron braces to protect the main construction from seismic actions. These elements have shown repeatedly their usefulness for reducing the seismic response, both from theoretical and experimental studies; and a number of practical applications have been reported. However, seismic records with near-fault effects possess special characteristics that might impair the performance of these devices, similarly as what occurs in base isolation; about energy issues, in such records (containing strong velocity pulses) the energy is delivered in a short time interval, thus being difficult to be absorbed. This work presents a numerical study regarding the performance of buckling-restrained braces under three types of seismic records: cortical far-field, subductive far-field and near-field (i.e. containing velocity pulses). The study is carried out on a symmetric 4-story steel moment-resisting unbraced frame that was tested at the E-defense laboratory, Japan; the dynamic response of such unbraced bare frame is numerically simulated, obtaining a satisfactory agreement. The same numerical model is used to describe the 2-D dynamic behavior of the steel frame equipped with buckling-restrained braces. The inputs are three series of ten ground motion records; each of these series belongs to one of the three aforementioned types. The average responses for each of the three types of inputs are compared; the obtained results show that the buckling-restrained braces are able to reduce the dynamic response of the frame and that no significant differences can be observed among the efficiency for far-fault and near- fault records.