Parametric Analysis of Prestressed Precast Concrete Frames with Buckling-Restrained Braces

To promote the application of precast concrete frames in earthquake hazard areas, a new prestressed precast concrete frame with buckling-restrained braces (BRB-PPCF) was proposed, and the nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis of 6-story, 9-story and 12-story BRB-PPCF cases under 20 earthquake waves were carried out. The results showed that the average maximum inter-story drift ratios <italic>θ</italic>_max of BRB-PPCFs were less than 2.0% and the maximum residual inter-story drift ratios <italic>θ</italic>_r were less than 0.5% under both rare and extremely rare seismic intensity. The <italic>θ</italic>_max and <italic>θ</italic>_r values of BRB-PPCFs gradually decreased with the decrease of the initial stiffness ratio <italic>α</italic>_c between the moment-resistant sub-frame (MSF) and the truss sub-system (TSS). Reducing the <italic>α</italic>_c value of BRB-PPCF effectively improved its seismic performance and post-earthquake recoverability. The <italic>θ</italic>_max and <italic>θ</italic>_r values of BRB-PPCFs decreased first and then increased with the increase of the ratio <italic>ψ</italic> of the MSF inter-story shear force at linear limit state and the TSS shear force at yield state, and the influence of the <italic>ψ</italic> was relatively small. The effects of the ratio <italic>σ</italic>_pi/<italic>σ</italic>_pl between the initial tensile stress and the proportional ultimate strength on the <italic>θ</italic>_max and <italic>θ</italic>_r values of the BRB-PPCF could be ignored.