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Friction-type reinforcing members (FRMs) developed for the purpose of enhancing the wind-resistant performance of transmission towers are tested experimentally. The FRMs, in the middle of which slotted bolted connections (SBCs) are installed, are placed on the outside of tower legs, and provide additional damping and stiffness to the tower structure under bending deformations. First, the SBCs used in the FRMs are tested for various frictional sliding interface conditions. Second, the FRMs are installed on a 1/2 scale plane tower substructure and cyclic loading tests are conducted. Energy dissipation capacity and effects from local deformations of the FRMs and joint slips are investigated. From the test results, remarkable energy dissipation capacity, reaching to the 2.4 times of that before the installation of the FRMs, is observed. However, the local deformation of the SBC and joint slip should be prevented for more reliable design of the FRMs.

This paper deals with the numerical model of a bracing-friction damper system and its deployment using the optimal slip load distribution for the seismic retrofitting of a damaged building. The Slotted Bolted Connection (SBC) type friction damper system was tested to investigate its energy dissipation characteristic. Test results coincided with the numerical ones using the conventional model of a bracing-friction damper system. The placement of this device was numerically explored to apply it to the assumed damaged-building and to evaluate its efficiency. It was found by distributing the slip load that minimizes the given performance indicies based on structural response. Numerical results for the damaged building retrofitted with this slip load distribution showed that the seismic design of the bracing-friction damper system under consideration is effective for the structural response reduction.

Friction-type reinforcing members(FRM) to enhance the resistance to wind loads of a transmission tower through both stiffness strengthening and damping increase are energy dissipation devices that utilize bending deflection of a tower leg. In this paper, the hysteretic behavior of the transmission tower structure with FRMs was experimentally investigated through cyclic loading tests on a half scale substructure model. Firstly, the variation of friction forces and durability of the FRM depending on the type of friction-inducing materials used in the FRM were examined by performing the cyclic loading tests on the FRM. Secondly, cyclic loading tests of a half-scale two-dimensional substructure model of a transmission tower with FRMs were conducted. Test results show that the FRM, of which desired maximum friction force is easily regulated by adjusting the amplitude of the torque applied to the bolts, have stable hysteretic behaviors and it is found that there exists the optimum torque depending on a design load by investigating the amount of energy dissipation of the FRMs according to the increase of torque.

A new equivalent linearization technique is proposed for a friction damper–brace system (FDBS) idealized as an elastoplastic system. The proposed equivalent linearization technique utilizes secant stiffness and dissipated energy based on the probability distribution of the extremal displacement of the FDBS. In addition, a conversion scheme to convert an elastically designed equivalent linear systems to a FDBS is given. For comparative study, an existing model update technique based on system identification is modified to constraint elements to be updated. For the purpose of verification, shaking table tests for a small scale three-story shear building model, in which a rotational FDBS is installed, are conducted and equivalent linear systems are obtained using the proposed technique and the model update technique. Natural frequencies, modal damping ratios and response quantities predicted by those equivalent linear systems are compared with experimentally obtained ones. Finally, effects of the maximum friction force on the proposed equivalent linearization technique are investigated through numerical analysis of SDOF systems with a FDBS.

Friction-type reinforcing members (FRMs) developed for the purpose of enhancing the wind-resistant performance of transmission towers are tested experimentally. The FRMs, in the middle of which slotted bolted connections (SBCs) are installed, are placed on the outside of tower legs, and provide additional damping and stiffness to the tower structure under bending deformations. Firstly, the SBCs used in the FRMs are tested for various frictional sliding interface conditions. Secondly, the FRMs are installed on a 1/2 scale plane tower substructure and cyclic loading tests are conducted. Energy dissipation capacity and effects from local deformations of the FRMs and joint slips are investigated. From the test results, remarkable energy dissipation capacity, reaching to the 2.4 times of that before the installation of the FRMs, is observed. However, the local deformation of the SBC and joint slip should be prevented for more reliable design of the FRMs.Copyright © 2008 by ASME