ENHANCED STRUCTURAL RESILIENCE THROUGH THE USE OF “LEAF-SPRING” COLUMNS AND REPLACEABLE DISSIPATIVE COMPONENTS

摘要

The main challenges of the construction sector (at this point and in the coming decades) are: natural hazards, climate change, sustainability, competitiveness, technology take-up, in service performance, re-industrialization. Regarding natural hazards, the latest seismic events evidenced the need for more resilient earthquake-resistant structures. Justified by expensive repairs, downtime and/or building demolition - it has become a widely held belief that the ductility of a structure is not the final goal, and that preventing the loss of life is not sufficient for a modern structure. Consequently, the current study was launched with the aim of providing structural configurations and practical solutions for enhanced resilient and sustainable buildings and communities. In particular, the research aims at reducing the repair costs and downtime of a structure damaged by natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes) and, consequently, at providing a more rational design approach, with regard to sustainability. Both replaceable dissipative components and structural re-centering capabilities are addressed. In brief, the research activities consist in developing a set of bolted beam-to-column joints with replaceable dissipative components and investigating the applicability potential of innovative “leaf-spring” columns into building frames. The central idea of the current study is to combine and rigidly connect several columns in the shape of a ”leaf-spring”, and to benefit from the mechanical properties of such an innovative element. Primarily, the “leaf-spring” columns are aimed to provide the structure with re-centering capability and to improve the overall structural response. The current paper presents: (i) the aim, objectives and particularities of the current research;;(ii) the outcomes of a case study (i.e. the design and seismic performance evaluation of standard vs. innovative structural configurations);;(iii) a proposed solution for beam-to-column joints with replaceable components and for structural re-centering;;(iv) the main conclusions and future research activities.