| Abstract: | Since the nature of an earthquake is the energy which is released due to tectonic events, improvements of behaviour of structures based on energy concepts have been a matter of great concern. Input energy must be dissipated by structures in order to decrease earthquake damage. For this purpose the YDBF (yielding damped braced frame) system is presented, which acts as a fuse when an earthquake occurs. Because of the high ductility of this system, damage to the main structural elements such as columns is prevented, and because of the non‐linear behaviour of such a system, which is based on the yielding of ductile steel, YDBF increases hysteretic dissipated energy. This class of dampers often yields in high or intermediate earthquake shakes and their hysteretic loops are relatively thick and stable. In this research seven YDBF system are modelled. These models are tested with various percentages of opening and the results of structural behaviour due to variation of opening percentages are compared. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
