Hysteretic Analysis Model for Pre-pressed Spring Self-Centering Energy Dissipation Braces

Abstract

A restoring force model is proposed that is applicable for predicting the hysteretic behaviors of the pre-pressed spring self-centering energy dissipation (PS-SCED) braces. Two Bouc-Wen models were used to portray the behaviors of the self-centering and energy dissipation mechanisms, and a linear elastic model was used to simulate the behaviors of the connecting ends. A genetic algorithm (GA) was used to identify the dominant parameters of this model on the basis of experimental data. Comparisons with experimental results for three prototype braces demonstrated that the proposed model could effectively portray the hysteretic behavior of the PS-SCED bracing system by selecting reasonable dominant parameters. Parametric analysis of the proposed model was performed, and a dimensionless function was defined to compare the influence of each parameter on the hysteretic behaviors of the bracing system. The results indicated that the energy dissipation parameter and the parameters that determined the stiffness of the loading and unloading phases could cause significant increases in the error function, whereas the other parameters could be set to constant values to simplify the model of the PS-SCED braces with the same configurations.