ANALYSIS OF THE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF INNOVATIVE ALUMINIUM ALLOY ENERGY DISSIPATION BRACES

In this study the employment of aluminium alloy buckling-restrained braces (ALBRBs) as energy dissipation dampers is attempted for seismic performance upgrading of single layer dome and the effectiveness of ALBRBs to protect structures against strong earthquakes is numerically studied. With buckling restrained, ALBRB members can provide stable energy dissipation capacity and thus damage of the whole structure under major earthquakes can be mitigated. ALBRBs are then placed at certain locations on the example single layer dome to replace some normal members with two schemes, and the effect of the two installation schemes of ALBRBs for seismic upgrading is investigated by non-linear time-history analyses under various ground motions representing major earthquake events. Compared with the seismic behaviour of the original structure without ALBRBs, satisfactory seismic performance is seen in the upgraded models, which clarifies the effectiveness of the proposed upgrading method and it can serve as an efficient solution for earthquake-resistant new designs and retrofit of existing spatial structure.