Seismic assessment of eccentrically braced frame with shape memory alloy rods

Residual displacement after an earthquake disrupts the performance of the structure and leads to local stress. There has been special important in development and the using of self-centering lateral resisting systems that reduces residual drift after a large earthquake. Self-centering lateral resisting systems often include a restoring force component that dissipates seismic energy. Eccentrically braced frame with vertical link (V-EBF) is one of seismic system based on shear yielding of link beams. If link beam has short length and supplies seismic requirements, link will be able to tolerate significant rotation without strength degradation. Shear link beam has a fat hysteresis curve and height potential of energy dissipation; for this reason the use of short link beam in eccentrically braced frame was modeled by using experimental models which were provided by other researchers and compared with laboratory results. After validation, 8 and 12 story V-EBF and equipped with SMA rods were designed and their performance were compared with similar structures without SMA rods. In order to compare the structures, pushover, time history and Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) were performed. The results of seismic analysis indicate that the using of SMA rods improves seismic performance and provides excellent reversibility capacity so reduces residual displacement of structure considerably.