SustBracedMHaz · Sustainable steel braced frame for multi-hazard mitigation

Modern societies need building infrastructure that is designed and maintained according to high sustainability and resilience standards. Sustainability in construction can be realized with demountable (easy to deconstruct) structures that enable change of the building geometry (adaptability) and reuse of materials and structural members at the end of the building life. Resilience can be realized with structures that can be easily repaired, if damaged, so that building service can be restored within an acceptable short, if not immediate, time after extreme loading conditions. Moreover, the need to design structures against multiple natural (e.g. earthquakes) and man-made (e.g. bomb blast) hazards has been recognized. The goal of the project is to address the aforementioned urgent societal needs by developing a novel steel concentric braced frame (CBF) that can, for the first time, simultaneously achieve the following overall objectives: (a) Sustainability in construction, (b) Enhanced progressive collapse resistance and reparability against a sudden loss of column due to bomb blast; and (c) Easy inspection and repair of damage to allow rapid return to building use and occupation after strong earthquakes.