Abstract
The hysteretic performances of steel beam-to-column connections using martensite shape memory alloy (SMA) rods were studied by the experiments. Before the connection test, the material test of Ni-Ti SMA was carried out for the verification of shape memory effect. Meanwhile, the other two type connections (ANGLE and A3) were also tested for comparison. The results showed that connections with SMA rods have excellent energy dissipation capacity, and no strength degradation even subjected to relative rotation of 0.04 rad. It was found that connections with SMA rods possess the higher stiffness and strength than the ANGLE connection, and better ductility than the A3 connection by comparing their hysteretic curves. Large residual deformations of SMA rods can be recovered by application of heat. Retests were performed using heat-straightened rods in the connections, and nearly identical hysteretic behavior was observed as in the case of initial testing.
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