Development and design of a new self-centering energy-dissipative brace for steel structures

Buckling-restrained braces are able to provide significant energy dissipation along with large ductile capacity through their excellent hysteretic behavior. However, due to their lack of recentering capability, buckling-restrained braced frames experience large residual drifts following a strong earthquake, leading to enormous repair costs. To overcome this shortcoming, super-elastic shape memory alloy braces with excellent recentering capacity have been introduced as a viable alternative to steel braces. Nevertheless, their energy dissipation capacity is usually low for seismic applications. This article proposes a robust self-centering energy-dissipative brace to be used in structural frames. The brace is capable of providing adequate energy dissipation capacity in the structure while simultaneously bringing the structure to its original configuration after the earthquake.