Seismic performance of buckling-restrained reduced beam section connection for steel frames

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcsr.2021.106622
• Publication Date: 2021-03-13T22:20:19Z
• Authors: Chenyu Liu; Jing Wu; Luqi Xie
• Keywords: Ductility (Earth science)

Abstract A new type of buckling-restrained reduced beam section (BR-RBS) connection is proposed in this study. It comprises a buckling restraining device assembled outside the reduced region of an RBS connection. This device can prevent large-amplitude local buckling of the flanges and web, when the reduced section yields under compression, thus improving the seismic performance of the RBS connection. An experimental study on a commonly employed RBS connection and the proposed BR-RBS connection was conducted to compare their mechanical and hysteretic properties, and energy dissipation capacities. The test results reveal that the buckling restraining device could effectively constrain the local buckling in the RBS region. In the pseudo-static test, no degradation was observed in the stiffness of the BR-RBS connection compared with that of the common RBS connection. The BR-RBS connection provided excellent ductility of up to 6.0%, and its moment capacity increased with the loading amplitude. The hysteretic curve of the connection with the buckling restraining device was also more stable, indicating that a significant energy dissipation capacity could be obtained. It is concluded that the proposed connection can meet the requirements of the current seismic codes. The two types of connections were also numerically simulated via finite element analyses and the results were compared with those of the experiment to verify the viability of the buckling restraining device.