STUDY ON FABRICATION AND PERFORMANCE OF CFRP BUCKLING- RESTRAINED BRACES BASED ON CYCLIC LOADING TESTS

Abstract

 Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs), which are widely used as seismic countermeasures for bracing members, are fabricated with steel and/or mortar, however, the overall weight of the member is large, so it makes the construction easier and the range of application wider if the weight can be reduced. The objective in this study is to develop lightweight CFRP BRBs. Test specimens of the CFRP ribbed BRB and the CFRP box-shaped BRB with stiffness equivalent to that of the conventional steel ribbed BRB were fabricated, and cyclic loading tests were conducted on the steel ribbed BRB and two types of prototype CFRP BRBs to investigate the validity of the proposed BRBs. As a result, it was confirmed that the CFRP box-shaped BRB has a reasonable cross-sectional shape, since it has equivalent performance to the steel-ribbed BRB at about 1/6 of its weight.