Seismic Retrofit of an Existing Reinforced Concrete Building with Buckling-restrained Braces

The seismic retrofitting of frame structures using hysteretic dampers is a very effective strategy to mitigate earthquake-induced risks. However, its application in current practice is rather limited since simple and efficient design methods are still lacking, and the more accurate time-history analysis is time-consuming and computationally demanding.

This paper develops and applies a seismic retrofit design method to a complex real case study: An eight-story reinforced concrete residential building equipped with buckling-restrained braces.

The design method permits the peak seismic response to be predicted, as well as the dampers to be added in the structure to obtain a uniform distribution of the ductility demand. For that purpose, a pushover analysis with the first mode load pattern is carried out. The corresponding story pushover curves are first idealized using a degrading trilinear model and then used to define the SDOF (Single Degree-of-Freedom) system equivalent to the RC frame. The SDOF system, equivalent to the damped braces, is designed to meet performance criteria based on a target drift angle. An optimal damper distribution rule is used to distribute the damped braces along the elevation to maximize the use of all dampers and obtain a uniform distribution of the ductility demand.

The effectiveness of the seismic retrofit is finally demonstrated by non-linear time-history analysis using a set of earthquake ground motions with various hazard levels.

The results proved the design procedure is feasible and effective since it achieves the performance objectives of damage control in structural members and uniform ductility demand in dampers.