Study of an innovative two-stage control system: Chevron knee bracing & shear panel in series connection

This paper describes analytical investigation into a new dual function system including a couple of shear links which are connected in series using chevron bracing capable to correlate its performance with magnitude of earthquakes. In this proposed system, called Chevron Knee-Vertical Link Beam braced system (CK-VLB), the inherent hysteretic damping of vertical link beam placed above chevron bracing is exclusively utilized to dissipate the energy of moderate earthquakes through web plastic shear distortion while the rest of the structural elements are in elastic range. Under strong earthquakes, plastic deformation of VLB will be halted via restraining it by Stopper Device (SD) and further imposed displacement subsequently causes yielding of the knee elements located at the bottom of chevron bracing to significantly increase the energy dissipation capacity level. In this paper first by studying the knee yielding mode, a suitable shape and angle for diagonal-knee bracing is proposed. Then finite elements models are developed. Monotonic and cyclic analyses have been conducted to compare dissipation capacities on three individual models of passive systems (CK-VLB, knee braced system and SPS system) by General-purpose finite element program ABAQUS in which a bilinear kinematic hardening model is incorporated to trace the material nonlinearity. Also quasi-static cyclic loading based on the guidelines presented in ATC-24 has been imposed to different models of CK-VLB with changing of vertical link beam section in order to find prime effectiveness on structural frames. Results show that CK-VLB system exhibits stable behavior and is capable of dissipating a significant amount of energy in two separate levels of lateral forces due to different probable earthquakes.