Resilient steel beam-column connection with bolted compact hollow structural steel damper

Abstract

This study proposes a resilience-based design approach that considers the correlation between the resilience response of self-centering post-tensioned (SCPT) steel beam to column connections and the inelastic performance of the required energy dissipation (ED) system. A compact circular hollow steel tube (CHST) is proposed as a replaceable ED system. On the basis of existing experimental results, a detailed three-dimensional finite element modeling (3D-FEM) was carried out to identify the response of the compact CHST under half cyclic loading. A large number of numerical works ended with the extraction of design charts to determine the axial strain (ΔL/L) of the ED system before encountering post-yield buckling and/or excessive strength degradation. Accordingly, in a numerical validated reference SCPT connection, several predesigned ED systems were implemented for simulation. As a result, according to the design charts, the optimum selection of proper inherent depth to thickness (D/t) ratio and length to depth (L/D) ratio of the CHST-ED system can increase the resilience of modern self-centering steel structures. In addition, the improvement of the entire connection resilience is associated with the development of satisfactory energy dissipation capacity. Furthermore, the superior performance of the connection under sequential cyclic loading promotes the application of the proposed SCPT-ED connection in a resilient structural system.