A proposal for energy dissipative braces with U-shaped steel strips

In this paper a new bracing system that consists of U-shaped elements as energy dissipation devices is introduced. The proposed bracing system can be considered as a hysteretic damper, which combines the advantages of the yielding dampers and the buckling resistant braces (BRB). This brace does not have the features of the typical damper systems, commonly used in the chevron bracings. Besides, it has low fabrication costs and can be easily replaced after a severe earthquake event. The installation details of the proposed brace are also discussed and its advantages are investigated. Several experimental tests have been performed under cyclic loads with different amplitudes to show the efficiency of the proposed device. The test results confirm the high dissipating capacity of the proposed bracing system. All specimens exhibit stable hysteretic behaviour under several cycles of large inelastic deformations. An additional evaluation has been done numerically by finite element models, where the effects of changing dimensions of the brace have been investigated. The obtained results show that the dissipation capacity of the system increases as the thickness of U elements increases or the height of the U elements decreases. At the end, the Ramberg-Osgood hysteresis model has been fitted to the obtained hysteretic loops as an analytical model for any further applications. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.