Pseudo-dynamic Performance Evaluation of Full Scale Seismic Steel Braced Frame s Using Buckling-Restrained and In-Plane Buckling Braces

Abstract

A series of hybrid and cyclic loading tests were conducted on a 3-story single-bay full-scale frame specimen in the Taiwan National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in 2010. There were total three hybrid tests conducted on this frame specimen. Two different lateral force resistant systems including buckling-restrained brace d frame (BRBF) and special concentrically braced frame (SCBF) were tested separately. The newly developed thin and welded end-slot buckling-restrained brace s (BRBs) were adopted for the first two BRBF hybrid tests. The in-plane (IP) buckling braces were installed in the SCBF for the last hybrid test. The BRBF or the SCBF was designed to sustain a design basis earthquake in Los Angeles and ground motion LA03 was used as the input ground motion for these tests. The inter-story drift reached near 3 % and 4 % radians in the BRBF and SCBF hybrid tests, respectively. The maximum base shear also reached more than 2,000 kN in these tests. Test results indicate that both frame systems performed satisfactorily. This chapter presents the seismic performance of the BRBF and SCBF hybrid tests.