Experimental Investigation of Foam-Filled CHS Braces under Cyclic Loading
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 5
Abstract
The performance of seismic braced frames can become compromised due to premature local buckling–induced fracture of the hollow structural section (HSS) steel braces. A strategy to delay the fracture of the braces is to postpone local buckling by filling HSS braces. Two experimental campaigns were undertaken to assess the performance of circular hollow section (CHS) braces under representative seismic loading when filled with a lightweight, pourable, expanding polyurethane foam. To determine the influence of the foam infill, 12 brace members were tested under reverse cyclic loading. In general, the foam infill was able to delay the initiation of local buckling in the plastic hinge region, consequently leading to improvements in cyclic ductility. Reduced strain values within the plastic hinge region of the filled braces compared with those of the empty braces further highlighted the beneficial influence of the foam infill. Overall, the test results suggested that the diameter-to-thickness ductility limits for CHS members in the current seismic design provisions can be relaxed with the inclusion of the polyurethane foam as infill.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. CMMI-1350605 and the US NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Fellowship Program with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Award No. 1713850. Any conclusions, findings, or opinions presented in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting organizations. Special thanks are given to Giuseppe Marzano, Christian Flores Carreras, and Ana Loustaunau for their assistance during testing.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 5 • May 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 2, 2020
Accepted: Dec 29, 2020
Published online: Feb 24, 2021
Published in print: May 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jul 24, 2021
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