About the author  ⁄ Brandt Saxey, S.E.

Brandt Saxey is the Technical Director for CoreBrace. He is a member of the AISC 341 TC-9 Seismic Systems Committee, TC-6 Connection Design Committee, and M3 Seismic Manual Committee. (brandt.saxey@corebrace.com)

Buckling Restrained Braces In Mass Timber Projects: Three Case Studies

For high-seismic regions, force-resisting systems are necessary.

Mass timber construction has experienced a significant increase in adoption in recent years due to its architectural appeal and sustainable nature. As its use has spread into regions of high seismicity, the need for reliable and economic seismic force-resisting systems compatible with this type of construction has arisen. Lateral systems incorporating Buckling Restrained Braces (BRBs) complement the desirable benefits of mass timber, and several methods have been developed for their incorporation in mass timber buildings. Three of these methods will be highlighted: a timber/steel hybrid system which collects lateral forces over large areas and concentrates them into steel BRBFs that are able to handle the relatively high resulting forces; a timber BRBF system which resists the lateral forces on a more local level but which must develop the BRB demands into timber members, rather than steel; and a novel timber shear wall system utilizing vertically-oriented BRBs as hold downs at the base of the wall. Each system has its advantages for certain building configurations and will be illustrated through completed projects. 

…
Read More →
May, 2023 By , , and In Articles, Mass Timber

BRBF Global Stability

The Real Failure Mode

A young researcher studying Buckling Restrained Braces (BRB) once commented that a change made in their design had improved the failure mode such that fatigue of the yielding core no longer controlled the BRB’s performance. Upon investigation, the change had simply created a failure mechanism that developed BEFORE the steel would have fatigued had the change not been made. The fatigue life of the BRB had not changed – the rest of the system simply no longer had the capacity to survive until fatigue limits would have been reached. Thus, what was thought to be a benefit, was not. But the point is an important one.

…
Read More →
Jul, 2021 By In Structural Analysis Comments 0
STRUCTURE magazine