Enhanced seismic performance: A novel cable brace with bending energy dissipation for semi-rigid steel frames

Ordinary braces upon experiencing compressive buckling, reach a fully plastic state, rendering them ineffective against further seismic action. Moreover, their post-earthquake repair and reinforcement pose significant challenges. Addressing these issues, this research introduces an innovative lateral force-resisting element: the bending energy dissipation-cable brace. This novel design utilizes steel cables in a unique tension-only arrangement, effectively dissipating seismic energy by inducing bending in a steel plate. A semi-rigid steel frame was constructed, incorporating two variations of the cable brace, differentiated by the thickness of their energy-dissipating frames. These were subjected to quasi-static cyclic loading tests to evaluate their hysteretic behavior, deformation pattern, load-bearing capacity decay, and energy dissipation capacity. The experimental results reveal the superior seismic performance of the bending energy dissipation-cable brace, evidenced by a 22 % enhancement in energy dissipation and a 38 % increase in stiffness when the thickness of the energydissipating frame is doubled. These results offer a promising solution to the current limitations in energy dissipation and difficulty of application of the combined brace of steel cable and bending yielding energy dissipation devices.