Buckling Restrained Brace With Inspection Windows

The buckling restrained brace (BRB) has been worldwide recognized as an energy absorber to protect structures from earthquake damage. However, the traditional BRB is a fully close design, it is therefore impossible to detect the condition of the steel core during manufacturing and after earthquakes. This paper proposed a buckling restrained brace with inspection windows that allow inspecting the condition of the internal components of the BRB. Experimental study in selecting the sizes and locations of the inspection windows without affecting the functionality of the BRB has been carried out to search for an economically feasible BRB that is convenient for manufacturing and installation and meets testing protocols. Test results of the proposed BRBs under cyclic loadings showed that the mechanical behavior of the BRB with inspection windows on the buckling-restraining unit consisting of the constraining and lateral support elements was stable and that damage always occurred at the energy dissipation segments after low cycle fatigue tests. These test results indicate that the inspection windows opened on the proposed BRB have little influence on the strength of the device and that the proposed device can be considered as a stable energy dissipation device.