ABSTRACT
To reduce the impact of climate change we must incorporate carbon-reducing materials while increasing the resiliency of buildings and infrastructure. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a unique opportunity to achieve these goals. SMAs are unique materials which experience phase changes due to stress allowing large, fully recoverable deformations, energy dissipation, and significant restoring forces. This is particularly helpful in regions of high seismicity. The SMA properties allow for a fully elastic seismic force resisting system. This stands in contrast to traditional steel moment frames which have significantly higher embodied carbon and buckling restrained braces (BRBs) which have a known tendency to have residual drift – rending the building unusable. Moment frames and BRBs systems cannot achieve the combined goals of carbon reductions and resiliency. Component, prototype, and large-scale shake table testing has been conducted to validate this approach.
