The cumulative plastic deformation demand for buckling restrained braces imposed by the strong motions in the 2023 Turkey earthquake sequence

Abstract

The Turkey earthquake sequence on February 6, 2023, was featured by the closely located earthquake doublet of Mw7.8 and Mw7.5. The consequent strong ground motions are supposed to be able to impose high demands on the ultra-low-cycle fatigue performance of metallic dampers in buildings, including the widely used buckling restrained braces. This study evaluates the cumulative plastic deformation (CPD) demands on buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) in multi-story buildings imposed by the strong ground motions in the 2023 Turkey earthquake doublet. Thirty-two records of the highest peak ground accelerations were selected from the strong motion database. Among them, eight captured the ground motions during both the events, and the rest only captured the shaking of either of the events. The CPD demands on the BRBs in reinforced concrete frames with various fundamental periods, brace-to-frame stiffness ratios, and BRB ductility ratio are calculated by nonlinear time history analyses, and are summarized in the form of enveloped spectra of CPD ratios at constant ductility. The results show that the CPD demands on BRBs increase with smaller brace-to-frame stiffness ratios and larger BRB ductility ratio. The enveloped CPD demands are several hundreds of times the nominal yield deformation of the BRB, which are much higher than the CPD demands for the calibration tests of BRBs stipulated by AISC 341 in the US.