• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 2018

To study the effects of corner braces on fatigue performance of the U-rib and roof weld in steel bridge decks, the fatigue experiment was carried out to compare characteristics of the crack shape with and without corner braces. The improvement of fatigue life and stress variation after setting corner braces were also analysed. Different parameters of corner brace sizes, arrangements, and detail types were considered in the FEM models to obtain stress distribution and variation at the weld. Furthermore, enhancement of the fatigue performance by corner braces was evaluated. The results demonstrated that the corner brace could improve the fatigue life of the U-rib and roof weld, which exerted even no influence on the crack shape. Moreover, stress of the roof weld was decreased and the crack position was transferred from the root weld to U-rib and corner brace weld. It was suggested no weld scallop should be drilled on the corner brace. A transverse rib with lower height which was set between U-ribs was favourable for improvement of fatigue performance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.863-882
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• 2016

This study aims to introduce a new bracing system by which even super-wide frames with large openings can be braced. The proposed system, hereafter called Cable-Pulley Brace (CPB), is a tension-only bracing system with a rectilinear configuration. In CPB, a wire rope passes through a rectilinear path around the opening(s) and connects the lower corner of the frame to its opposite upper one. CPB is a secondary load resisting system with a nonlinear-elastic hysteretic behavior due to its initial pre-tension load. As a result, the required energy dissipation would be provided by the MRF itself, and the main intention of using CPB is to contribute to the initial and post-yield stiffness of the whole system. Using a stiffness calibration technique, optimum placement of the CPBs is discussed to yield a uniform displacement demand along the height of the structure. A displacement-based design procedure is proposed by which the MRF with CPB can be designed to achieve a uniform distribution of inter-story drifts with predefined values. Obtained results indicated that CPB leads to significant reductions in maximum and residual deformations of the MRF at the expense of minor increase in the maximum base shear and developed axial force demands in the columns. In the case of a typical 5-story residential building, compared to SMRF system, CPB system reduces maximum amounts of inter-story and residual drifts by 35% and 70%, respectively. Moreover, openings of the frame are not interrupted by the CPB. This is the most appealing feature of the proposed bracing system from architectural point of view.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.571-587
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• 2020

In this article the seismic demand and performance of two recent braced steel frames named steel moment frames with the elliptic bracing (ELBRFs) are assessed through a laboratory program and numerical analyses of FEM. Here, one of the specimens is without connecting bracket from the corner of the frame to the elliptic brace (ELBRF-E), while the other is with the connecting brackets (ELBRF-B). In both the elliptic braced moment resisting frames (ELBRFs), in addition to not having any opening space problem in the bracing systems when installed in the surrounding frames, they improve structure's behavior. The experimental test is run on ½ scale single-story single-bay ELBRF specimens under cyclic quasi-static loading and compared with X-bracing and SMRF systems in one story base model. This system is of appropriate stiffness and a high ductility, with an increased response modification factor. Moreover, its energy dissipation is high. In the ELBRF bracing systems, there exists a great interval between relative deformation at the yield point and maximum relative deformation after entering the plastic region. In other words, the distance from the first plastic hinge to the collapse of the structure is fairly large. The experimental outcomes here, are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2021

Piloti-type buildings in Korea are usually composed of lower frames and upper shear wall structures. Piloti-type buildings have been seriously damaged during earthquakes because of the construction of soft and weak stories. Piloti-type buildings with edge cores are two-way unsymmetric planes. This paper analyzed and obtained the dynamic response for structures modeled using a multistory two-way asymmetric system. The numerical results, obtained using the Newmark-β method, show the time-history responses and trends of maximum displacements and shear forces. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of reinforcement on dynamic response when a shear wall or brace is reinforced in the corner opposite the piloti.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.12 no.1 s.44
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• pp.75-82
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• 2000

Recently, many studies on connections in steel structures have been performed. In practice, designers assume that the connection is a rigid- or pinned-one, however, actually the connection behaves as partially restrained one, neither fully restrained nor unrestrained. This paper concentrates on the behavior of double angle connections in the field of semi-rigid connections. The behavior of double angle connection. induced by abrupt axial tension load or by collapsed brace in medium or low rise building, is analyzed by 3D nonlinear finite element method using ABAQUS(ver 5.8). From the analytic results. a simplified model of double angle and a rotational stiffness at the corner of the angle are derived, which are fundamentally used for understanding the behavior of the double angle connection.