Seismic Performance of Earthquake Resilient Steel Frame Joints with Replaceable Buckling-Restrained Flange Cover Plates

This paper proposes replaceable buckling-restrained flange cover plates to improve the seismic performance and resilience of steel frame joints. Five full-scale specimens were designed and tested under cyclic loads to investigate the hysteretic performance. The investigated parameters were the core plate thickness (affecting strength ratio alpha and thickness-gap ratio beta) and restraining plate configuration (affecting restraining length ratio lambda and restraining plate disconnected position ratio psi). Numerical models were established using ABAQUS and verified through comparisons with experimental data and phenomena. The results show that the proposed joint can achieve the expected target of buckling-restraint and damage control.