International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056

Volume: 04 Issue: 03 | Mar -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) A Review

Nayana Surendran1, Asha Varma P2

1
PG Student, Department of Civil Engineering, NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, Kerala, India
2 Professor, Dept. of civil Engineering, NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, Kerala, India

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Abstract - Civil engineering structures are subjected to such earthquake resisting system which is much more
enormous cyclic forces during a seismic event. Many of the efficient than conventional concentric braces.
structural failures in buildings during strong earthquake
shaking have indicated that sustainable strength and stable
energy dissipation capability are most desirable to maintain 2. BUCKLING RESTRAINED BRACES(BRB)
inter story drifts and overall structural displacements within
tolerable levels. So earthquake action brings a greater concern Buckling-Restrained Braces (BRBs) are a relatively recent
in the structural design of buildings which is situated in development in the field of lateral load resisting structures.
earthquake prone areas. Steel bracing are the common type The early invention on BRB started in 80s and its testing
which mainly used to resist the lateral loads acting during a took place in mid-80s. during 90s it was implemented in
seismic activity. Conventional type of lateral load resisting Japan and because of its good response, this technology was
systems are concentrically-braced frames (CBFs) and transferred in US in 1998 whose testing and simulation took
eccentrically braced frames (EBF). Buckling Restrained place in 1999 and then safely implemented in important
Braces(BRB) are recent developed structural system which has projects after 2000. In 2000, the first BRB system is applied in
a stable energy dissipation property. Main advantage of BRB is North America as a primary lateral resisting system at UC
its ability to yield both in tension and compression without Davis. The figure 1 shows the various stages in the
buckling, thus obtaining a stable hysteresis loop. The BRB development of BRB. The concept of BRB was first
brace placed in a concentric frame is termed as BRBF system. conceptualized by Wakabayashi a Japanese engineer. The
first buckling-restrained brace that was made up of flat steel
plate sandwiched between reinforced concrete panels.
Key Words: stable energy dissipation, concentrically-braced
frames, Buckling Restrained Braces(BRB), inter story drifts,
hysteresis loop

1.INTRODUCTION

Earthquakes causes economic losses as well as

losses of lives due to collapse of structures. During a severe
earthquake event the main structural elements like beams
and columns are seriously affected. When a building is
subjected to seismic wave, large amount of energy is
distributed within in the building and the level of damage
sustained by the building depends on the dissipation of this
energy. So a structural engineer has great concern in
designing earthquake resisting system to dissipative energy
effectively from the structure.

The primary function of an energy dissipation

element is to reduce the damage in main structural
Fig -1: Timeline of BRB system development
components. Bracings are widely used to stabilize the
structure against the lateral loads generated due to wind, The main component of BRBs consists of a steel core, which
earthquakes etc. Main drawback of conventional bracing is is encased by concrete which is shown in figure 2. The space
the degradation of brace strength under compression due to between the tube and brace is filled with a concrete-like
buckling of the brace. BRB is an effective solution for this material and a special coating is applied to the brace to
problem. Buckling restrained braced frame system is one prevent it from bonding to the concrete. So that, the brace
can slide with respect to the concrete-filled tube. The

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
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concrete filled tube provides the required confinement

during cyclic loading. The main load resisting element in
BRB is the steel core, and the overall buckling of the core
steel is resisted by the restraining mechanism provided by
the outer casing.

Fig -2: Schematic of buckling restrained brace

Fig -3: Behaviour of brace
The basic behaviour of conventional braced frame and BRBF
system is shown in the figure 3. BRB shows a symmetry in
the response during the action of lateral loads and BRB is
designed in such a way that the buckling during the
compression cycle is avoided. Figure 4 shows the hysteresis
behaviour of the brace. BRB have a stable force-deformation
curve during tension and compression cycle while concentric
brace performs well during tension cycle and experiences
buckling during the compression cycle. After the buckling of
the brace, the brace losses its strength and leads to the
fracture of the brace in the subsequent cycles. Low
compression cycle capacity leads to the low energy
dissipation and deformation ductility of the brace when
compared to the BRB. Watanabe et al. (1988) conducted
experiments on five BRBs to investigate the effect of the
strength of the steel tube on the strength of the steel core.
The results suggested that, in order to prevent buckling of
BRBs, the steel tube must have an elastic buckling strength Fig -4: Hysteresis plot for buckling-restrained brace and
greater than the yield strength of the steel core (or Pe Py). concentric brace
In order to prevent global buckling, the ratio of P e/Py must
be greater than 1.5.
BRB can be used in buildings as well as in bridges as a
structural fuse to dissipate seismic energy. Several research
works are going in this field. Usami et al. (2005) studied the
implementation of BRBs for the seismic upgrading of steel
arch-truss bridges. The long-span Minato Bridge in Japan,
which was retrofitted by installing BRBs. BRBs were placed

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 03 | Mar -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

on the cross frames of the main tower and on the lower

lateral bracing near the main tower.

2.1 Advantages
BRBs offer the following advantages
Simple modelling of its cyclic behaviour for inelastic
analysis
It can be easily connected to the structural system
by means of a bolted or pinned connection to gusset
plates
Stable hysteretic behaviour and high energy
dissipation capacity
Limited sensitivity to environmental condition
changes
Design flexibility in the selection of both stiffness
and strength of the whole structural system of a Fig -5: Osaka International Convention Centre, Japan
building
Does not usually require structural members and
foundation strengthening.
It yields in both tension and compression
It is easy to adopt in seismic retrofitting
BRB act as a structural fuse and during a seismic
event damage is concentrated in the BRB element.
The BRB element can if necessary be replaced after
a major seismic event.
Depending on the configuration used, BRBFs can
give lower foundation loads than comparable
shear wall systems.

2.2. Disadvantages
However, BRBs have some disadvantages
Lack of recentering mechanism Fig -6: Casad Dam, Bremerton, WA, US
Lack of criteria for detecting and checking damaged
braces
Ductility properties strongly affected by the
geometry and material type of the yielding steel
core segment
Further studies regarding the reliability of brace
connections to the frame are required.
2.3. Innovative uses for BRBs
BRBs have been used on many types of structures such as
office buildings, hospitals, retail, car parks, multi-story
residential, schools, religious, stadiums and arenas, as well
as non-building and industrial structures [3][4]. Some of
them are shown below.

Fig -7: Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building, Utah

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3. LITERATURE REVIEW under constant and variable loading. The toe-finished

method can effectively improve the fatigue performance of
A review of literatures is presented below summarizing the BRBs with relatively small strain amplitudes. But the BRBs
various work done by different scholars and researchers on fatigue performance is affected by the in-plane gap width
BRB. between filler members and the restraining member.

Symans M. D et al (2008) Energy Dissipation Systems for Fatih Sutcu et al, Seismic retrofit design method for RC
Seismic Applications: Current Practice and Recent buildings using buckling-restrained braces and steel frames
Developments: This paper mainly discusses about the This paper discusses the evaluation of seismic retrofit of
current practice and recent developments in the application building with BRB. A typical five-story RC school building in
of passive energy dissipation systems for seismic protection Turkey, was selected for the upgradation. The results were
of structures. Most commonly been used devices for seismic confirmed by nonlinear time-history analysis using high-
protection of structures include viscous fluid dampers, intensity seismic waves. The building retrofitted with BRB
viscoelastic solid dampers, friction dampers, and metallic shows relatively reduced story drift when compared to the
dampers. Basic principles of energy dissipation systems, original building and the building with CBs.
descriptions of the mechanical behaviour and mathematical
modelling of selected passive energy dissipation devices, Tsutomu Usami, Hanbin Ge and Xiao-Qun Luo, Experimental
advantages and disadvantages of these devices are also and analytical study on high-performance buckling
discussed in these paper. restrained brace dampers for bridge engineering: In this
paper they have studied the use of BRB in steel bridges.
Gaetano Della Corte et al(2009) All-steel buckling- When compared to seismic dampers in building, the main
restrained braces for seismic upgrading of existing disadvantage in bridge engineering structures is that they
reinforced concrete buildings: This paper discusses about a are subjected to large number of forces. So it requires high
new type of BRB that is all steel BRB. In all steel type BRB the performance dampers. The experiment conducted on five
restraining unit is made of steel instead of concrete filled BRB specimens shows that they can be used effectively in
tube. Five BRB specimens were tested according to the AISC steel bridges and it satisfies the overall buckling condition.
loading protocols. All steel BRB shows excellent response
and it act as a structural fuse. Even when undesired failure
modes occurred, RC frames equipped with BRBs showed Jose et al (2014) Application of BRB in 50 storey building:
superior performance over bare RC frames. All steel type this paper describes the use of BRB in a high rise building.
have certain advantages over conventional BRB i) Here the BRB is combined with the ductile core wall.
economical and ease of fabrication ii) easily detachable after Response spectrum analysis is carried out for design basis
damage iii) cost effective since pouring and curing of earthquake and non-linear time history analysis for credible
concrete is eliminated. earthquake. Modelling and analysis are done ETABs and
PERFORM 3D software packages. The results indicate that
W. N. Deulkaret al (2010) This paper presents the study of BRB is effective in reducing base shear and controlling the
Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB), its analysis, design, deformations.
modeling and its application in steel building frame.
Nonlinear time history analysis of 5-story 2D frame is Tsutomu Usami (2015), A new seismic performance
carried using software, SAP 2000 under El Centro upgrading method for existing steel bridges using BRBs: In
earthquake. The response parameters used to evaluate this paper a novel method for seismic upgradation of steel
structural performance are natural time period, story bridge is presented. The paper deals with the retrofitting of
interstory drift, displacement, axial forces and story shear. steel bridges without replacing the existing steel braces in
Five different types of BRB configuration are studied and the the bridge. The bare H section was strengthened using BRB
correct behavior of BRB is evaluated. It is observed that BRB and experimentally investigated the properties. BRBed
can be modeled by keeping the area of central core equal to sections were capable to dissipate large amount of energy.
or less than half of end offset area and length of yielding
central core equal to 1/3 of total length of brace. Based on
Zhe Qu et al (2015) Seismic responses of reinforced
the study, new brace configuration is proposed which
concrete frames with buckling restrained braces in zigzag
controls joint displacement over the unbraced and BRB
configuration: Here in this paper a new buckling restrained
configurations studied
braced frame system was proposed which was featured by
the zigzag configuration of BRB. Experimental tests were
T. Usami et al (2011), Low-Cycle Fatigue Tests of a Type of conducted to establish realistic numerical models of the
Buckling Restrained Braces: in this paper the fatigue life of brace connections in the proposed system. With these
steel BRB is studied. Twelve BRB specimens divided into two numerical models, a nonlinear dynamic analysis of a
series as welded BRB and toe finished BRB were tested prototype building was conducted to investigate the seismic

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 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 03 | Mar -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

behaviour of the new braced frame system. The results show

that the BRB in the new system are efficient in reducing the REFERENCES
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