/Detailed modeling of buckling restrained braces to account for strain hardening, filler degradation and contact stresses within their components. Numerical model of the structural behavior of energy dissipators based on buckling restrained braces

Abstract

This article presents a detailed numerical model for assessing the behavior of buckling restrained frames considering interaction between its constitutive parts when subjected to cyclic axial demands. The model has been implemented in ABAQUS © involving an explicit formulation. Particularly, the steel core of the BRB has been represented by a constitutive model that considers kinematic strain hardening while the encasing mortar is represented by a standard damage model suited for fragile, Coulomb type materials. Great effort has been devoted to represent the interface between both, by involving an energy penalization scheme that allows for a sudden build up of contact stresses. The proposed model has been successfully benchmarked considering experimental results after pseudo-static loading, obtained in the University of California at (Berkley?). This study will be helpful for developing cost-efficient BRBs devices for devising effective infrastructure earthquake protection strategies in the third world.