Current Status of Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame Design: Currently Available Buckling-Restrained Braces

摘要

Buckling-Restrained Braces (BRBs) are relatively new in California engineering design practice. In the first years of their use, designers faced challenges to their specification on certain projects for a variety of reasons, including competitive bidding requirements and limited available testing (as well as a lack of an established set of applicable building-code provisions). Recently the number of manufacturers of buckling-restrained braces has increased, as has the body of available test data. This paper summarizes the available test data and discusses the pros and cons of the four different manufacturers and other relevant details that are of interest to the practicing engineer.