Seismic performance of high-strength-steel frame equipped with sacrificial beams of non-compact sections in energy dissipation bays

Abstract

This work focuses on the seismic performance of high-strength-steel frame equipped with mild-carbon-steel sacrificial beams of non-compact sections in energy dissipation bays, namely the HSSF-NCEDB structure. This work was commenced with a test program of a HSSF-NCEDB system as a feasibility study. The test results indicate that the novel structure exhibits the desirable damage-control behavior with inelastic actions locked in the sacrificial beams with non-compact sections for the expected deformation range. Even though both high-strength-steel members and sacrificial beams with non-compact sections were restricted by the limited energy dissipation, ductile manner was observed. A finite element (FE) model was established, and good agreement between the test results and the FE results was obtained. For practical applications, the concept of the buckling hinge was developed for quantifying the stable energy dissipation stage of sacrificial beams with non-compact sections. Lastly, the effectiveness of the HSSF-NCEDB system for mitigating the post-earthquake residual deformations was demonstrated by preliminary nonlinear dynamic analyses of single-degree-of-freedom oscillators with validated hysteretic models. The research findings from this work indicate that the HSSF-NCEDB structure is a promising option for structures in low-to-moderate seismic regions.