• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.197-206
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• 2022

Recently, steel-timber hybrid buildings have become prevalent worldwide because several advantages of both steel and timber structures are maintained in the hybrid system. In Taiwan, seismic design specification related to steel-timber hybrid buildings remains void. In this study, the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid buildings in Taiwanese seismic design specification is first proposed and evaluated using nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis (IDA). Three non-linear structural models, 12-story, 8-story, and 6-story steel-timer hybrid buildings were constructed using OpenSees. In each model, Douglas-fir was adopted to assemble the upper 4 stories as a timber structure while a conventional steel moment-resisting frame was designated in the lower part of the model. FEMA P-695 methodology was employed to perform IDAs considering 44 earthquakes to assess if the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid building is appropriate. The analytical results indicate that the current ductility capacity of steel moment-resisting frames can be directly applied to steel-timber hybrid buildings if the drift ratio of each story under the seismic design force for buildings in Taiwan is less than 0.3%. As a result, engineers are able to design a steel-timber hybrid building straightforwardly by following current design specification. Otherwise, the ductility capacity of steel-timber hybrid buildings must be modified which depends on further studies in the future.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.83-100
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• 2022

Timber is one of the few natural, renewable building materials and glulam is a type of engineering wood product. In the present work, timber-based braces are applied for retrofitting midrise Special Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) using two types of timber base braces (Timber base glulam, and hybrid Timber-Steel-BRB) as alternatives for retrofitting by traditional steel bracings. The improving effects of adding the bracings to the SMRF on seismic characteristics of the frame are evaluated using load-bearing capacity, energy dissipation, and story drifts of the frame. For evaluating the retrofitting effects on the seismic performance of SMRF, a five-story SMRF is considered unretofitted and retrofitted with steel-hollow structural section (HSS) brace, Glued Laminated Timber (Glulam) brace, and hybrid Timber-Steel BRB. Using OpenSees structural analyzer, the performance are investigated under pushover, cyclic, and incremental loading. Results showed that steel-HSS, timber base Glulam, and hybrid timber-steel BRB braces have more significant roles in energy dissipation, increasing stiffness, changing capacity curves, reducing inter-story drifts, and reducing the weight of the frames, compared by steel bracing. Results showed that Hybrid BRB counteract the negative post-yield stiffness, so their use is more beneficial on buildings where P-Delta effects are more critical. It is found that the repair costs of the buildings with hybrid BRB will be less due to lower residual drifts. As a result, timber steel-BRB has the best energy dissipation and seismic performance due to symmetrical and stable hysteresis curves of buckling restrained braces that can experience the same capacities in tension and compression.