ABSTRACT
After the Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake (1995) in Japan, unbonded brace as a kind of hysteretic damper has been widely used in earthquake-resistant building structures. The authors of this paper have carried out a series static and dynamic loading tests for the moment resistant steel frames with or without hysteretic damper during the past year. This paper is reporting the outlines of the experiments, test methods and results. For the purpose of comparison with the experiment results, dynamic response analysis for a 3 story steel frame structure has also been carried out. It has been confirmed that hysteretic damper can help the moment resistant steel frame to absorb a majority of input energy from earthquake so that the damage to the main steel frame can be greatly relieved. Due to the contribution of hysteretic dampers to the lateral stiffness of the structural system, the main steel frame can be manufactured relative slender and to achieve good economic performance.
