Seismic performance of floor-by-floor assembled steel braced structures with stiffened connections

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of a full-scale testing on a tension-only concentrically braced beam-through frame (TCBBF). The implementation of TCBBF facilitates the construction of low-rise industrialised residential steel houses by means of floor-by-floor assembling. This type of TCBBF system features cold-formed hollow structural section columns connected to H-section through beams by end plate with bearing-type high-strength bolts. A two-storey, four-span by one-span TCBBF subjected to vertical loads was cyclically loaded horizontally to examine the seismic behaviour. Stable behaviour was observed up to a storey drift angle of 1/10. The cyclic behaviour was characterised by a linear response, a slip range and a significant hardening response. Deteriorating pinched hysteretic behaviour was notable for cyclic loading primarily because of cyclic brace compression buckling and tension yielding. TCBBF incorporates very slender bracing members that are unable to bear much axial load when subjected to comp...