Application of Buckling Restrained Braces in a 50-Storey Building

The use of Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) for enhancing the performance of the buildings is gaining wider acceptance. This paper presents the first application of these devices in a major high-rise building in the Philippines. A 50-storey residential reinforced concrete building tower, with ductile core wall, with BRB system is investigated. The detailed modeling and design procedure of buckling restrained brace system is presented for the optimal design against the two distinct levels of earthquake ground motions; serviceable behavior for frequent earthquakes and very low probability of collapse under extremely rare earthquakes. The stiffness and strength of the buckling restrained brace system are adjusted to optimize the performance of the structural system under different levels of earthquakes. Response spectrum analysis is conducted for Design Basis Earthquake level and Service level, while nonlinear time history analysis is performed for the most credible earthquake. The case study results show the effectiveness of buckling restrained braces.