Design of Tension-Only Concentrically Braced Steel Frames for seismic induced impact loading

Tension-Only Concentrically Braced Frames (TOCBFs) exhibit deteriorating pinched hysteretic behaviour during strong earthquakes. It has long been suspected that the sudden increase in tensile forces in the braces of TOCBFs creates detrimental impact loading on the connections and other structural elements. This paper addresses this issue through shake table tests of half scale, two-storey, TOCBF models. By normalizing the hysteresis loops of …