A Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections for Seismic Resilience [E2]

A novel frame-spine building structural system with force-limiting connections (FLCs) is being developed to protect buildings, their contents, and occupants during large earthquakes. The frame-spine-FLC system employs practical structural components to economically control building response and prevent damaging levels of drift and acceleration. This system is currently being investigated collaboratively by an international team including three U.S. universities, two Japanese universities, and two major experimental research labs. The project includes FLC concept development and full-scale component testing, numerical simulations of system response, full-scale shake-table testing at the E-Defense facility, and parametric evaluation of many system configurations to develop a framework for translation to practice.

This session provides an overview of the ongoing research project, including selected FLC cyclic test results, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses to characterize system behavior and prepare for testing, and experimental results from the full-scale building with the frame-spine-FLC system that was recently tested in Miki, Japan.

Track: Design Analysis, Seismic

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