Seismic behaviour of a self-centring steel connection with replaceable energy-dissipation components

Structural resistance during the earthquake and the recoverability thereafter are of considerable concern in civil engineering. Localised damage is usually designed for easier post-earthquake repair or replacement, but a relatively low residual deformation is also required to make it truly viable. Based on that, this study mainly aims to propose a novel beam-column connection with self-centring capacity, and damage is concentrated on specific energy-dissipation plates that are replaceable to ensure rapid recovery after seismic events. The seismic behaviour of the target connection was investigated by quasi-static tests, and energy-dissipation plates of different sizes were replaced after cyclic loadings. Results showed that all specimens exhibited minor residual deformation and concentrated structural damage, indicating excellent seismic performance. The replacement of energy-dissipation plates was highly efficient, and structural responses were identical before and after replacing the plates of the same size. Numerical models were established in both refined and simplified methods to validate the experimental results, and further discuss structural responses with plates of different sizes. Moreover, a theoretical method for predicting structural behaviour was validated by both experimental and numerical results. The findings reveal actual seismic responses of the target connection in different geometries, and demonstrate the post-earthquake replaceability of the energy-dissipation components in practice. Besides, the analytical and simulated methods verified by actual behaviour can be extended for further analysis of the target system to understand and improve its seismic resilience.