Steel frame with buckling-restrained braces subject to near and far-fault inputs

A great variety of passive energy dissipation systems have been proposed in the last decades to improve the seismic resistance of new and existing constructions. However, new numerical and experimental researches are needed to evaluate the efficiency of such systems under different types of earthquakes. In particular, it is necessary to know if a building frame protected with buckling restrained braces can achieve a good performance when undergoes far-field and near-field inputs. In this paper, a steel frame that was previously tested in a shaking table is considered. The main objective is to study numerically the seismic performance of this structure with and without buckling restrained braces. The structural analysis considers the nonlinear behavior of the structure and of the protecting devices. The numerical results show the efficiency of the devices under both types of inputs.