STUDY ON RESTORING FORCE MODEL AND HYSTERETIC BEHAVIORS OF PRE-PRESSED SPRING SELF-CENTERING ENERGY DISSIPATION BRACE

To evaluate the self-centering performance and energy dissipation capacity of the pre-pressed spring self-centering energy dissipation (PS-SCED) brace, the hysteretic behaviors of PS-SCED brace under horizontal low cyclic loads are simulated and analyzed. Furthermore, the equations governing the responses of the PS-SCED bracing system are provided after analyzing the characteristics of flag-shaped hysteretic responses, and the restoring force model of PS-SCED brace is proposed based on the Bouc-Wen model. Comparisons between the proposed model and the simulation results by ANSYS are conducted to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model, showing that the proposed restoring force model is accurate enough to describe the mechanical performance of PS-SCED brace under dynamic loads, and good agreements between the calculated results by the proposed model and simulated results by ANSYS are observed. The proposed model has an important reference value for the seismic analysis and design of self-centering energy dissipation braced frame structures.