Abstract:After many years of development, researchers have begun to realize that the traditional seismic design method of using the plastic deformation and damage of the structure itself to dissipate seismic energy could no longer meet safety and economic requirements. Thus, energy dissipation technology has become a hot issue in the field of seismic building designs. Many design methods have been proposed, such as the energy dissipation design based on equivalent linearization, displacement, and energy. Most of the proposed designs, however, are based on the perspective of the whole structure. However, the safety of the most integral parts is ignored. Thus, for the sake of protecting such parts of a structure, some suggestions for the application of energy dissipation design method are given in this work in the form of an optimal allocation method of energy dissipation brace based on the load path. Specific design steps of this energy dissipation method are listed in this paper. The most integral parts of a structure transfer the main load in load path. When these parts are damaged, such damages can have a huge effect on the structural safety of an entire building. First, we simulate an irregular-plane RC frame structure using a finite element modeling software. Then, we use the basic principle of Generalized Rigidity method to calculate the importance coefficients of all elements found in a structural system. Second, we assume the energy dissipation brace section parameters and then arrange the braces in these locations, such that the element importance coefficients are maximized on each floor. Third, we check the final brace parameters after checking the axial forces in the most unfavorable conditions while considering seismic response. Next, we use dynamic time history analysis method to analyze the irregular-plane RC frame structure. In this process, three different seismic conditions divided by the earthquake fault distance are considered, including far-field ground motions, near-field ground motion with pulse, and near-field ground motion without pulse. The analysis results show that regardless of the ground motion, this energy dissipation design method based on the load path can provide effective protection to the most integral parts of the structure. Furthermore, the structural seismic response is also well controlled. Finally, these energy dissipation braces can work well in different earthquake intensities.
