Abstract
When a buckling-restrained brace (BRB) is composed of a flat steel core encased in a rectangular steel tube with infill mortar, the flat steel core develops high-mode buckling waves within the spaces occupied by compressible debonding layers when BRB is in compression. The wave crests and troughs collide with mortar and then acting outward forces on restrainer. The steel tube wall may bulge out if the restrainer is too weak to sustain the outward forces and the BRB may lose its compression carrying capability. The outward force can be estimated according to steel core high-mode buckling wavelength and the debonding layer thickness. The restrainer capacity in resisting outward forces can be estimated by using the upper bound theory in plastic analysis. The results of 39 BRB tests were compared in order to evaluate the effectiveness of steel tube capacity estimation methods. 24 BRBs exhibiting local bulging failure suggested that the steel tube capacity can be estimated by assuming the bulged wall as a wedge shape with five of its boundary developing flexural strength. The proposed estimation is conservative and can be adopted for BRB design in preventing local bulging failure for severe seismic services.
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