Experimental and numerical investigation on seismic performance of steel palace-style archaized buildings with SMA-based sliding dampers

The steel archaized building is an innovative structural system that integrates the traditional aesthetics of historical timber structures with contemporary steel materials. To improve the seismic performance and post-earthquake recoverable functionality of steel palace-style archaized buildings under severe earthquakes, the shape memory alloy-based sliding damper (SSD) device consisted of friction dampers, and shape memory alloy (SMA) bars were designed and installed around the beam-column joints in steel palace-style archaized buildings. Cyclic tests on three joints with SSD devices demonstrated excellent energy dissipation and reparability. The experiment found that, compared to rotational dampers, the use of SSD devices in the shear dampers not only reduces the energy dissipation but also improves the post-earthquake repairability of the structure. Moreover, reducing the thickness of angles in the joints contributes to better post-earthquake reparability of the structural system. On the basis of experiments, a three-dimensional finite element frame model was established. Numerical simulation results have demonstrated that the energy dissipation capacity of the steel palace-style archaized building with SSD devices (SRF-SD frame) is significantly enhanced in comparison to that of the totally rigid structure (RF frame). The proposed SRF-SD frame conforms to the design concept of “self-centering for minor and medium earthquakes, and massive energy dissipation under rare earthquakes”, and has good application prospects.