The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Slotted bolted connection energy dissipators

Grigorian, Carl E.; Yang, Tzong-Shuoh; Popov, Egor P.

UCB/EERC-92/10, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1992-07, 27 pages (515/G74/1992)

Slotted bolted connections (SBCs) are modified bolted connections designed to dissipate energy through friction during rectilinear tension and compression loading cycles. Experimental results on two types of SBCs are reported. In one type, friction occurs between clean mill scale steel surfaces; in the other, friction is between clean mill scale steel and brass surfaces. The friction mechanisms giving rise to the observed behavior are explained. As an example, a one-story diagonally braced frame is designed, and its behavior determined for four different earthquakes. Experimental results are presented for the fabricated SBC for this frame subjected consecutively to the four displacement histories derived from these earthquakes.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-92-10.pdf (1 MB)