Investigation on the Behavior Factor of SMA-Braced RC Frames

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are novel materials that found more applications in many fields of science and engineering. Recently, SMAs have been used in structural engineering due to their re-centering, high damping capacity, durability and fatigue resistance. Aforementioned characteristics of SMAs rely on two unique properties: Shape Memory Effect (SME) and super elasticity. One of the applications of this material in structural engineering is to use SMAs as bracing elements. The results of investigations that carried out on SMAbraced frames represent the functionality and viable performance of this bracing system. In this paper, SMA wire braces were installed diagonally in the frame structures as seismic resisting members. Several SMA-braced frame models were designed to investigate the behavior factor (R) of these types of frames. The behavior factor and its components including ductility reduction factor and over strength factor were evaluated by performing pushover analysis of the models.