Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Experimental study on two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces

Guo-Qiang Li a,b, Ying-Zhi Sun a,⁎, Jian Jiang c, Fei-Fei Sun a,b, Chang Ji a
a
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
b
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
c
School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) are widely used in engineering especially for braced frames as load-bearing as
Received 10 January 2019 well as excellent energy dissipating members. However, the conventional BRBs are designed in elastic state
Received in revised form 17 April 2019 under frequent earthquakes for avoiding low-cycle fatigue, and cannot contribute to seismic energy dissipation.
Accepted 26 April 2019
In order to overcome this defect, conventional BRBs are recommended to combine with metal tube dampers to
Available online 11 May 2019
form a novel type of two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces (TYBRBs). The tube damper in TYBRBs yields
Keywords:
under frequent earthquakes to consume seismic energy. The core plate of TYBRBs yields under rare earthquakes
Two-level yielding to further dissipate energy and reduce seismic effect. In this paper, the configuration and mechanical models of
Buckling-restrained brace TYBRBs are first presented. Two TYBRB specimens are designed and cyclic loading tests are carried out. It is found
Tube damper that: (1) the low-cycle fatigue resistance of tube dampers can meet the requirements of TYBRBs for frequent
Energy dissipation capacity earthquake resistance; (2) The functions of TYBRBs can be realized with rational design; (3) The performance
Low-cycle fatigue resistance of BRBs in TYBRBs does not degrade with combination of tube dampers.
Mechanical model © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Moment resisting frames (MRFs) are widely applied for buildings,
but the height of buildings is constrained due to the limited lateral stiff-
ness of MRFs. To improve the stiffness of MRFs, use of braces is one of
the most common strategies. However, conventional braces are prone
to buckle under compressive forces due to earthquakes, which renders
the frame suffer from more serious damage. Furthermore, the unbal-
anced performance of braces under tension and compression also re-
sults in poor energy dissipation capacity, which is detrimental to the
seismic resistance of structures. In order to avoid buckling of conven-
tional braces under compression, the concept of buckling-restrained
braces (BRBs) has been put forward.
In Japan. Wakabayashi et al. [1], Kimura et al. [2], Mochizuki et al. [3]
pioneered research on BRBs from 1973. The first practical BRB was
achieved by Watanabe, Wada et al. [4] in 1988. They employed rectan-
gular steel tubes with in-filled mortar as the restrainer, and determined
the optimal debonding material specifications to obtain stable and sym-
metric hysteretic behavior. In 1989, BRBs were applied to 10- and 15-
story steel frame office buildings in Japan [5]. From then on, Sridhar
et al. [6] and Kuwahara et al. [7] improved the performance of BRBs
from the perspective of bearing capacity and configuration. Nowadays,
great progress has been achieved in the research and application of
BRBs [8–28], and various forms of BRBs have popularized in many
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: y.z.sun@tongji.edu.cn (Y.-Z. Sun).
seismic areas, including China, United States, Europe, etc. However, in
order to avoid low-cycle fatigue failure, conventional BRBs are designed
to be elastic under frequent earthquakes, which means they cannot dis-
sipate the input seismic energy. Although the lateral displacement of a
structure can be controlled when it is in an elastic state, the seismic
load will be increased for the increased overall stiffness of the struc-
tures, which brings higher requirements for other structural compo-
nents (especially for the base).
As an economical and reliable alternative, metal dampers have been
widely used in buildings to dissipate the input energy from earthquakes,
but their load bearing capacity is usually low. Similar to BRBs, many
forms of metal dampers, including bending dampers [29–33], shearing
dampers [34], slit dampers [35,36] and tube dampers [37], are proposed
to meet different requirements of seismic resistance. In the reference
[38], an overall experimental research on tube dampers with different
configurations was carried out. Apart from the basic static properties,
the calculation method of low-cycle fatigue of tube dampers was also
proposed.
The above literature shows that BRBs have good energy dissipation
capacity under rare earthquakes rather than frequent earthquakes,
while metal dampers have good energy dissipation capacity under fre-
quent earthquakes, but provide limited lateral stiffness and load bearing
capacity. The objective of this paper is to propose an new type of braces
to provide lateral stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity under both
frequent and rare earthquakes. To this end, a novel type of two-level
yielding buckling-restrained braces (TYBRBs) is proposed in this
paper, as a combination of conventional BRBs and metal tube dampers.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2019.04.042
0143-974X/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269 261

Fig. 1. Configuration of two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces.

The component of metal tube dampers can yield under frequent damper is fractured and out of work and the core plate works indepen-
earthquakes to increase the structural damping and reduce the seismic dently in plastic state. The schematic relation between external axial
response of structures. While the core plate of BRBs can provide lateral force (P) and axial displacement (Δ) of TYBRBs is shown in Fig. 2.
stiffness under frequent earthquakes, and yield under rare earthquakes According to the equilibrium equation and the coordination rela-
to further dissipate seismic energy. Meanwhile, the damage of metal tionship, the load-displacement relations and stiffness formulas of
dampers can be easily detected after earthquakes, and thus used as a TYBRBs at the above four stages are obtained as presented below.
fuse to reflect the damage degree of the core plate of BRBs. The config- Stage I(Δ ≤ð1 þ kkDT ÞΔDy ):
uration and mechanism models of TYBRBs were presented in this
paper. Two TYBRB specimens with different configuration of tube 0 1
dampers were designed and tested under cyclic loading schemes. The B 1 C
P1 ¼ B
@1 þ kC C
AΔ ð1Þ
hysteretic curves of the specimens were output, which were used to val- 1
þ
idate the proposed mechanism model of TYBRBs. kD kT

2. Configuration of two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces 1

k1 ¼ þ kC ð2Þ
1 1
þ
Two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces (TYBRBs) are com- kD kT
posed of conventional buckling-restrained braces and metal tube 
dampers, as shown in Fig. 1. The restraint tube of conventional BRB, Stage II ( ð1 þ kkDT ÞΔDy ≤Δ≤ΔCy ):
filled with mortar, is inserted into the tube damper with only a small
gap between them for easy installation and the arc segment at the cor- 0 1
1
ner of tube damper. One end of the tube damper is free and the other B C −1
1 βD
end is connected with an end plate, which is fixed in the node area of P2 ¼ B
@ 1 þ k C
CAΔ þ Δ ð3Þ
1 1 1 Dy
BRBs. The key components of tube dampers are the steel strips, which þ þ
βD kD kT β D kD kT
could yield when the relative displacement of their two ends reaches
a specific threshold value. To realize the yielding mechanism, the free 1
end of strips is supposed to be fixed with the restraint tube of the BRB k2 ¼ þ kC ð4Þ
1 1
by fillet welding. Therefore, the goal “two-level yielding” can be þ
βD kD kT
achieved if the yielding displacement of the tube damper is smaller
enough than that of the core plate.
Stage III(Δ ≥ ΔCy):
0 1
3. Mechanism of two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces 1
B C −1
1 β
P3 ¼ B
@ 1 þ β k C
AΔ þ D
Δ þ ð1−βC ÞkC ΔCy ð5Þ
Dynamic non-linear analyses are needed for the seismic design of 1 C C
1 1 Dy
þ þ
structures with TYBRBs. In these analyses, hysteretic models of TYBRBs βD kD kT β D kD kT
are needed. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a hysteretic model of
TYBRBs to simulate their realistic hysteretic characteristics. The hyster- 1
k3 ¼ þ β C kC ð6Þ
etic model should be as simple as possible and have a reasonable accu- 1 1
þ
racy, and it also should be consistent with the design principle of βD kD kT
TYBRBs. The reasonability of the hysteretic model should be validated
against experimental results. Generally, a hysteretic model can be deter-
mined by skeleton curves and hysteretic rules. In the following two sub-
sections, the skeleton curve and hysteresis rule of TYBRBs are presented,
respectively.

3.1. Skeleton curve

According to the configuration described in Section 2, the tube

damper and the restraint tube of BRB are connected in series, and the se-
ries system is connected in parallel with the core plate of BRB to bear
load together. Except for the tube damper and the core plate, other por-
tions remain elastic all the time. According to the mechanical state of the
tube damper and core plate, the working condition of TYBRBs can be di-
vided into four stages: (I) Both the tube damper and the core plate re-
main elastic; (II) The tube damper yields, but the core plate keeps
elastic; (III) Both the tube damper and core plate yield; (IV) The tube Fig. 2. Skeleton curve of TYBRBs.
262 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269

Stage IV(kD = 0，PD = 0):

P 4 ¼ βC kC Δ þ ð1−βC ÞkC ΔCy ð7Þ

k4 ¼ βC kC ð8Þ

where ΔDy and ΔCy are the yielding displacement values of the tube
damper and the core plate, respectively; kD, kT and kC are the stiffness
of the tube damper, the restraint tube and the core plate, respectively;
βD and βC are the reduction coefficients of the post-yielding stiffness
of the tube damper and the core plate, respectively.

3.2. Hysteresis rule

Based on Pang's research [39], the tri-linear kinematic hardening

hysteretic rules applicable to the TYBRBs is proposed. The relationship
between axial force (P) and relative displacement (Δ) is plotted in Fig. 3.
The lines l1 to l6 are the boundaries or control lines of hysteretic
curves, which control the loading and unloading rules of the whole hys-
teretic model and can be described by Eqs. (9)–(14).

Fig. 3. Hysteretic rule of TYBRBs. l1 : P ¼ k2 Δ þ P 1 −k2 Δ1 ð9Þ

Fig. 4. Layout of two TYBRB specimens.

 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269 263

Table 1 Table 2
Test specimens of TYBRBs. Material properties of core plates and tube dampers.

Specimen Core plate Restraint Aspect ratio of H B No. of Steel Test standard Thickness Yield Tensile Elongation
no. (mm) tube (mm) steel strips (mm) (mm) strips brand (mm) strength strength (%)
(MPa) (MPa)
1 20 × 60 200 × 80 × 2 72 36 6
10 Q235 GB/T228-2002 20 289 410 39.2
2 20 × 60 200 × 80 × 4 96 24 20 #20 GB/T228-2002 8 316 468 28.5
10

Note: aspect ratio = H/B; H = height of strips; B = width of strips.

the tri-linear relation will degrade to bi-linear kinematic hardening hys-
teretic model. To make the designer convenient, the effect of tube
l2 : P ¼ k2 Δ−P 1 þ k2 Δ1 ð10Þ damper can be only considered in frequent earthquakes and ignored
in rare earthquakes. Then the hysteretic model can be simplified into
l3 : P ¼ k3 Δ þ P 1 þ ðΔ2 −Δ1 Þðk2 −k3 Þ ð11Þ bi-linear model in both frequent earthquakes and rare earthquakes.

l4 : P ¼ k3 Δ−P 1 þ ðΔ2 −Δ1 Þðk2 −k3 Þ ð12Þ 4. Test setup on two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces

l5 : P ¼ k3 Δ þ P 1 −ðΔ2 −Δ1 Þðk2 −k3 Þ ð13Þ 4.1. Layout of TYBRB specimens

l6 : P ¼ k3 Δ−P 1 −ðΔ2 −Δ1 Þðk2 −k3 Þ
The lines l1 and l2 represent yielding of the tube dampers while the
core plate remains elastic, which corresponds to the stage II. This stage
can be described by a double-linear kinematic hardening hysteretic
model. When it is loaded, it first develops according to the elastic stiff-
ness k1 until it reaches the control line l1, then continues to develop
along with l1; When it is unloaded, it develops according to the stiffness
k1 until it reaches the control line l2, and then continues to develop ac-
cording to this line.
After yielding of the core plate (stage III), it first develops according
to the elastic stiffness k1 as it is loaded. When the vertical distance
reaches 2P1, the loading stiffness is changed to k2 until reaching the
boundary control line l3, and it continues to develop along with l3. For
the unloading process, it develops according to the stiffness k1 until
the vertical distance reaches 2P1, and the loading stiffness is changed
to k2 before reaching the boundary control line l6. It continues to de-
velop along with l6. During the loading process, the damage of tube
dampers could be calculated according to [38]. After failure of the tube
dampers, the stiffness contribution of tube dampers drops to zero and
ð14Þ Two TYBRB specimens (Specimen 1 and Specimen 2) were designed
and manufactured, as shown in Fig. 4 and Table 1. The two specimens
have the same core plates (20 mm × 60 mm) and restraint tubes
(200 mm × 80 mm × 10 mm), but different configuration of tube
dampers, as shown in Fig. 5. The tube damper in Specimen 1 has a
strip aspect ratio of 2, compared with a value of 4 for Specimen 2. The
number of strips for the two specimens is 6 and 20 in total, respectively.
The aspect ratios of strips of the two specimens are the same as those in
the reference [38], and thus the static properties, hysteretic properties
and the low-cycle fatigue properties of strips were supposed to be all
the same.
4.2. Material properties
The core plates were made of Q235 steel (nominal yield strength of
235 MPa). The restraint tubes were made of Q345 steel (nominal yield
strength of 345 MPa). The two tube dampers were made of #20 steel.
Tensile coupon tests were conducted to obtain the material properties
of Q235 steel and #20 steel, and the results are listed in Table 2. The
yield and tensile strength of Q235 steel are 289 MPa and 410 MPa,

Fig. 5. Layout of steel tube dampers of TYBRB specimens.

264 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269
Fig. 6. Setup of specimens.
respectively. The yield and tensile strength of #20 steel are 316 MPa and
468 MPa, respectively.
4.3. Loading system
The setup of the specimens is shown in Fig. 6. One end of the speci-
men was connected with the reaction frame, and the other end was con-
nected with the sliding rigid beam which was connected with the
actuator. During the loading process, the sliding rigid beam was driven
by the actuator to impose load.
Fig. 7. Schematic of loading schemes.
4.4. Loading scheme
The schematic of loading scheme is illustrated in Fig. 7. In order to
check the low-cycle fatigue performance of the tube damper, the yield-
ing displacement of the core plate (1.69 mm) was imposed as the load-
ing displacement amplitude with 30 cycles firstly. After that,
the specimens were loaded according to the requirements for BRBs in
the design code [40]: 1/300, 1/200, 1/150 and 1/100 of the length of
the core plate as the amplitude, which were loaded 3 cycles at each am-
plitude to confirm the performance of core plates. After that, the load
amplitude was reduced to 1/150 of the core plate length, which was re-
peated for 30 cycles to further evaluate the low-cycle fatigue perfor-
mance of core plates.
4.5. Layout of measurement points
The arrangement of strain gauges and Linear Variable Differential
Transformers (LVDTs) is shown in Fig. 8. The strain gauges were at-
tached to the ends of steel strips to identify the yielding of tube
dampers. LVDT1 was used to measure the relative displacement of the
core plate, while LVDT2 was to measure the relative displacement be-
tween the two ends of damper strips.
5. Test results
5.1. Load-displacement hysteretic curves
The hysteretic curves of Specimen 1 and 2 are shown in Figs. 9 and
10, respectively. Generally, plump hysteretic curves were achieved, in-
dicating the good energy dissipation capacity of TYBRBs.
The measured complete hysteresis curve of Specimen 1 is shown in
Fig. 9g, with other figures showing the hysteresis behavior at different
 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269 265

Fig. 8. Layout of measurement points.

loading phases with various constant amplitude. After the first loading
phase (Fig. 9a), the tube damper yielded but the core plate remained
elastic. The energy dissipation capacity of the tube damper was stable.
After 30 cycles of hysteretic loading, the tube damper did not break
down, and the bearing capacity almost did not drop. No crack occurred
on the surface of the steel strips. The low-cycle fatigue resistance of the
tube damper was validated. Three loading cycles were repeated under
the following amplitude of 1/300 of the core plate length (Fig. 9b). The
core plate yielded. With the increase of the loading amplitude, the bear-
ing capacity of the tube damper continued to increase, the hysteretic
curve was still full and stable, and the tube damper was not failed. In
the second cycle of the third loading phase (Fig. 9c), the steel strips of
the damper cracked locally with obvious splitting sound, but the bear-
ing capacity of the damper did not decrease significantly. In the third
cycle of the amplitude loading, the bearing capacity of the damper
began to decline. In the loading phase with an amplitude of 1/150
core plate length of 3 cycles (Fig. 9d), cracks developed rapidly in the
energy dissipation steel strips of the tube damper. In the fifth phase of
loading (Fig. 9e), the steel strips of the tube damper were broken, and
the core plate bore the external force individually. In the final loading
phase (Fig. 9f), the core plate exhibited good energy dissipation capacity
and low-cycle fatigue resistance, which did not degrade by the combi-
nation with the tube damper.

Fig. 9. Hysteretic curves of Specimen 1.

266 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269

Fig. 10. Hysteretic curves of Specimen 2.

Similar to Specimen 1, the hysteretic loops of Specimen 2 under the
first phase of 30-cycles loading (Fig. 10a) were full and stable, indicating
that the low-cycle fatigue resistance of the tube damper was reliable.
Thereafter, in the second loading phase (Fig. 10b), the tube damper
worked with the core plate together. In the third to fifth loading
phase, cracks developed on the steel strips and the tube damper gradu-
ally lost its bearing capacity. In the final loading phase (Fig. 10f), the hys-
teretic curves of the core plate were also plump and stable, indicating
the reliable energy dissipation capacity and low-cycle fatigue resistance
of the core plate. The complete test hysteretic curve of Specimen 2 is
shown in Fig. 10g.
The proposed four-stage force-displacement curve of TYBRBs in
Section 3 was validated against experimental results. In the third
stage, the damper is on the verge of failure. In the fourth stage, only
the core plate bears the external force. A comparison of the calculated
and measured first- and second- stage of stiffness and bearing capacity
for Specimen 1 and Specimen 2 is shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
The parameters △Dy, kD and βD in Eqs. (1)–(8) were calibrated through

Table 3 Table 4
Comparison of stiffness and bearing capacity of Specimen 1. Comparison of stiffness and bearing capacity of Specimen 2.

First-level yield First-level Second-level First-level First-level yield First-level Second-level First-level
bearing capacity (kN) stiffness yield bearing stiffness bearing capacity (kN) stiffness yield bearing stiffness
(kN/mm) capacity (kN) (kN/mm) (kN/mm) capacity (kN) (kN/mm)
Calculation 181 385 486 250 Calculation 190 380 488 250
Measurement 171 398 487 251 Measurement 185 394 481 243
Relative error −5.6% 3.4% 0.2% 0.4% Relative error −2.6% 3.7% −1.4% −2.8%
 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269 267

Fig. 11. Comparison of hysteretic models with the hysteretic curves.

previous experiments for tube dampers [38], and the calculation of
other parameters △Cy, kT, kC and βC about BRBs were referred to [41].
Generally, the predictions were in good agreement with the measure-
ments. The proposed hysteretic model for TYBRBs also showed a good
agreement with the experimental measurements as shown in Fig. 11.
The peak forces for each loading cycle were extracted, as shown in
Fig. 12. It can be seen that the peak force was relatively stable during
the first 30 cycles loading phase with constant amplitude. The slight re-
duction in the peak force was due to the cumulative damage of the tube
damper and followed yielding of the core plate yields. With the increase
of loading displacement amplitude, the axial force of the steel strips in
the tube dampers increased. Accordingly, the peak force of TYBRB spec-
imens greatly increased. After the loading amplitude of 1/300 and 1/200
the length of the core plate, the tube dampers almost broke down, and
the peak force dropped and remained at the bearing capacity of the
core plate.
5.2. Equivalent damping ratio
For a centrosymmetric hysteretic curve, the equivalent damping
ratio can be accurately defined by Eq. (15) as:
Aloop is the area of the current hysteretic loop; ESO denotes the elastic
strain energy; Fmax is the maximum force and Dmax is the maximum
loading amplitude of the current loop.
The variation of equivalent damping ratio of each loading cycle of the
two specimens is showed as Fig. 13. In the first stage, the equivalent
damping ratio mainly reflected the plasticity of the tube damper since
the core plate kept elastic. After the core plate yielded, the equivalent
damping ratio greatly increased. Especially for the middle loading
stage, the equivalent damping ratio reached its highest value because
that both the tube damper and the core plate experienced plastic defor-
mation, dissipating energy together. In the later stage, the tube damper
broke down and the core plate was left to dissipate energy individually.
The equivalent damping ratio kept stable until the end of the loading
procedure. For practical application, it is reliable and conservative to ig-
nore the contribution of tube dampers to the equivalent damping ratio
after the yielding of core plates. In addition, if the equivalent damping
ratio of the first stage needs to be increased, the bearing capacity of
the tube damper could be increased or the yielding displacement should
be reduced.
6. Conclusions

ED Aloop A new type of two-level yielding buckling-restrained braces

ζ¼ ¼ ð15Þ
4πESO 2π F max Dmax (TYBRBs) was proposed, consisting of steel tube dampers and conven-
tional buckling-restrained braces. The former is designed to yield
where ED denotes the energy consumed by the current hysteretic loop; under frequent earthquakes to consume seismic energy, while the latter

Fig. 12. Variation of peak forces of the specimens against number of cycles.
268 G.-Q. Li et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 159 (2019) 260–269
Fig. 13. Variation of equivalent damping ratios of the specimens against number of cycles.
is supposed to yield under rare earthquakes to further dissipate energy.
Cyclic loading tests were carried out on two TYBRB specimens to inves-
tigate their seismic behavior, and to validate the proposed mechanism
model of TYBRBs. The main conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) The two-level yielding function of TYBRBs was confirmed by the
experimental results. This function can be realized in practice
with rational design, through adjusting the yielding displace-
ment of tube dampers to be sufficiently smaller than that of the
core plate in buckling-restrained braces.
(2) Under frequent earthquakes with small displacement, the tube
damper yielded and the core plate remained elastic. The mea-
sured hysteresis loops of TYBRB specimens were plump and sta-
ble. There was no crack in the steel strips of the tube dampers,
indicating good low-cycle fatigue resistance of the tube dampers
for TYBRBs. After frequent earthquakes, the damage of the tube
damper can be easily detected for the exposure of the steel strips.
If the cracks appear at the end of the steel strips, the steel strips
can be replaced by others with the same dimension by cutting
and welding conveniently, needless of uninstallation and rein-
stallation of the TYBRBs.
(3) The predictions of both yield bearing capacity and stiffness of the
TYBRBs in the first two stages were in good agreement with the
experimental measurements, and the proposed hysteretic
model satisfied well with the TYBRBs.
(4) After the failure of tube dampers, the core plate of buckling-
restrained braces bore the load independently. The hysteresis
curves of TYBRB specimens were still plump and stable, and the
low-cycle fatigue resistance of TYBRBs was demonstrated to be
excellent. This indicates that the presence of tube dampers has
no adverse effect on the behavior of core plates of BRBs. To sim-
plify the design process for practical application, the contribution
of the tube dampers can be ignored after the yielding of core
plates for TYBRBs.
Acknowledgments
The work presented in this paper was supported by China National
Key R&D Program during the 13th Five-year Plan Period with grant
2016YFC0701203.
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