Ductility Enhancement in Reinforced Concrete Structure with Buckling Restrained Braced Frames

Adding braces to moment frames is considered to be quite an efficient technique for increasing the global stiffness and strength of the structure. It has not only been used in steel moment frames, but also in reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames in recent years. It certainly can increase the energy absorption capacity of structures and also decrease the demand imposed by seismic ground motions. Steel braces are anchored firmly to boundary beams and columns. They are modeled as truss elements and increase earthquake resistance of the building. Buckling restrained braced frames (BRBFs) in which members yield under both tension and compression without significant buckling have been used in recent years in order to ensure the desired seismic performance of special concentrically braced frames. BRBFs are similar to the special concentrically braced frames in that seismic accelerations are resisted by a building-frame members and diagonal braces whereas the design procedure is different. BRBs should be designed to permit ductile yielding both in compression and tension. In this paper, flat-slab RC building with two different configurations of buckling restraint braces (BRBs) is studied. The buildings have 4-storey with 5 bays in both X-and Y-directions and have been designed according to Turkish Specification of Reinforced Concrete Design (TS 500). In order to explore overall behavior up to failure and lateral load resisting capacities for these buildings, nonlinear static analyses have then been performed using SAP 2000-V14.1. Pushover analysis under constant gravity loads and monotonically increasing lateral forces during an earthquake until a target displacement is reached is generally carried out as an effective tool for performance based design. The major outcome of a pushover analysis is the capacity curve which shows the base shear vs. the roof displacement relationship and represents the overall performance of the building. The results of the analyses are presented in terms of capacity curve and energy dissipation.