ABSTRACT
Effectiveness of steel bracing system installed with fully mechanical interfaces is experimentally demonstrated through a series of monotonic and cyclic loading tests. Also, sub-structuring pseudodynamic earthquake response tests are performed on a possible situation of a two-story braced frame upgraded by the proposed bracing system. An earthquake record and theoretical impulses are adopted as input excitations. The results show that an impulse excitation acts more stringently on the occurrence of brace breaking.
