The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake simulation tests and associated studies of a 0.3-scale model of a six-story eccentrically braced steel structure

Whittaker, Andrew S.; Uang, Chia-Ming; Bertero, Vitelmo V.

UCB/EERC-87/02, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1987-07, 422 pages (515/W495/1987)

A summary is given of research conducted in the six-story eccentrically chevron-braced steel building structures phase of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Earthquake Research Program. The selection, design, and testing of the prototype are discussed, and a review of the design of the eccentrically chevron-braced prototype, in accordance with the 1985 Uniform Building Code, the 1984 Applied Technology Council ATC 3-06 provisions, and the 1986 Structural Engineers Assn. of California requirements, is presented. The results of the static and dynamic analyses of the prototype are discussed. The design, construction, and instrumentation of the model are described, and its mechanical characteristics are compared with those results predicted by DRAIN-2DX. The experimental program, the earthquake simulator tests, and the data acquisition and processing techniques, in addition to the predicted strength and response of the model, are discussed in detail. The results obtained from one serviceability limit state, one damageability limit state, and three collapse limit state tests are described fully. An evaluation of these test results regarding the design and construction of eccentrically chevron-braced dual systems is presented along with several code-based recommendations.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-87-02.pdf (28 MB)