| Abstract: | The authors developed a buckling‐restrained brace that enables increased design freedom at both ends of the core plate and strict quality control while providing stable hysteresis characteristics even under high strains. The buckling‐restrained brace can be formed by welding a core plate covered with unbonded material to a pair of mortar‐filled channel steels (steel mortar planks) as a restraining part. The use of this approach enables visual confirmation of the status of the mortar filling and also facilitates standardizing structural members and member‐by‐member quality control. Specimens of a buckling‐restrained brace with different steel mortar plank heights are fabricated to adjust the restraining force, along with specimens with different core plate width‐to‐thickness ratios. The tests were conducted to reveal the hysteretic characteristics of the braces, as well as their cumulative plastic strain energy, elastoplastic properties, and stiffening properties. A performance evaluation formula as well as a buckling‐restrained brace design method using the test results is proposed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
