Cyclic Behavior of a Bamboo-Steel Hybrid Moment Frame with a Novel Energy Dissipation Connection

Abstract

This paper presents a novel bamboo/wood-steel hybrid frame which uses engineered bamboo products as beams and steel as columns. The beams and columns are jointed by an innovative connection which incorporates a steel hinge and two steel brackets to carry shear force and moment from the end of beam, respectively. The bracket consists of two segments, i.e. joint segment connected to beam and the other segment, which serves as energy dissipation panel (EDP), connected to the columns via a base panel. By this way, the connection can provide sufficient initial stiffness for serviceability requirements and excellent energy dissipation capacity for seismic performances. Lateral cyclic loading tests were conducted to investigate the seismic performances of the frame. It was found that hysteresis loops of the frame with energy dissipation joints show less pinching than that of frames with dowel- or bolt-type connections; by proper designing, the damage and failure of the frame can be restricted in the EDPs of connections, whereas virtually no damage was observed in the other components of the frame; the connection can provide more than 10 % damping for the frame after the yielding of EDPs. Design method is also proposed in this paper.