Comparing Numerical Results for Seismic Performance of Portal Steel Frames Braced with Steel: HSS Brace, Glulam Timber Brace, and Timber-Steel-BRB

Abstract

This study involves the application of timber-based bracings elements. For this purpose, seismic analyses are performed on special portal steel frames without the brace and diagonally braced with Glued Laminated Timber (glulam) and Timber-Steel Buckling Restrained Brace (TS-BRB), and the results are compared with the same configuration using steel Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) bracing, using OpenSees structural analyzer. First, to verify the accuracy of the modeling, the numerical results are compared with experimental measurements on several types of elements: (a) diagonally braced frame with steel Hollow Structural Sections with a concentrically steel braced frame which was tested by the quasi-static method under cyclic loading protocol by previous researchers, (b) diagonally glulam braced frame with results of shake table tests on single-story timber braced frames, and (c) Timber-Steel Buckling Restrained Brace (TS-BRB) frame with experimental results of Heavy Timber Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame (HT-BRB). In the second step, the aforementioned timber base bracing alternatives (glulam, TS-BRB) are applied in the special portal steel frame, then the seismic performance of the frame is investigated under pushover, cyclic, time history, and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA), and then the results are compared with the behavior of similar portal frame in two conditions without the brace and diagonally braced with the steel-HSS brace. Results showed that steel-HSS, glulam, and timber-steel buckling restrained braces have significant roles in energy dissipation, increasing shear capacity, decreasing interstory drift, and decreasing weight and cost of estimation of the structure.