Collaborative Research: Frame-Spine System with Force-Limiting Connections for Low-Damage Seismic Resilient Buildings

该项目将开发一种新的结构系统，在大地震期间保护建筑物及其内容物和居住者，并使震后立即入住。 这种抗震结构系统对于医院等重要设施特别有价值，因为必须防止建筑物和内容物损坏以及人员受伤，并且必须保证连续使用性能。 新系统将使用实用的结构部件来经济地保护建筑物免受破坏性位移和加速度的影响。 该项目团队将与日本研究人员合作，利用位于日本三木、由国家地球科学与抗灾研究所运营的 3D 全尺寸地震测试设施（E-Defense）来研究全尺寸地震模拟的新系统。 该项目将通过防止人员伤亡和最大限度地减少大地震对建筑物造成的社会和经济破坏，促进国民健康、繁荣和福利。美国钢结构协会夜校计划将开发并提供有关弹性抗震设计的在线课程，该课程将引起全国各地的执业工程师、研究人员和学生的兴趣。该项目的数据将存档在自然灾害工程研究基础设施 (NHERI) 数据仓库 (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org) 中。 该项目有助于 NSF 在国家地震减灾计划中发挥作用。该项目将开发的具有限力连接（FLC）的新型钢框架-脊柱侧向力抵抗系统将控制多模态地震响应，以保护建筑物并提供弹性结构和非结构建筑性能。 该框架-脊柱-FLC 系统将依赖于传统的、经济的基础系统，该系统可抵抗大部分横向载荷。 该系统明智地采用了地板限力可变形连接和弹性脊柱来保护基础系统。 综合实验和数值模拟将提供对新型框架-脊柱-FLC系统的全面了解，包括关于3D激励下结合面内、面外和扭转响应的建筑抗震性能的丰富的全尺寸实验数据。 FLC 将使用理海大学的 NHERI 设施进行测试。 该项目将与日本正在进行的协同研究项目合作进行。 这项美日综合研究项目的广泛数据集将能够对结构和非结构性能进行独特的比较，包括直接影响患者健康和安全的关键加速度敏感医院内容。 此外，该数据集还将促进用于评估建筑性能的计算模型的进步，并开发用于设计的实用、准确的模型，以捕捉地震期间发生的复杂的 3D 结构响应。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will develop a new structural system that will protect buildings, their contents, and occupants during large earthquakes and will enable immediate post-earthquake occupancy. This earthquake-resilient structural system will be particularly valuable for essential facilities, such as hospitals, where damage to buildings and contents and occupant injuries must be prevented and where continuous occupancy performance is imperative. The new system will use practical structural components to economically protect a building from damaging displacements and accelerations. The project team will collaborate with Japanese researchers to study the new system with full-scale earthquake simulations using the 3D Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility (E-Defense) located in Miki, Japan, and operated by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience. This project will advance national health, prosperity, and welfare by preventing injuries and loss of human life and minimizing social and economic disruption of buildings due to large earthquakes. An online course on resilient seismic design will be developed and offered through the American Institute of Steel Construction night school program, which will be of interest to practicing engineers, researchers, and students across the country. Data from this project will be archived in the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) Data Depot (https://www.DesignSafe-ci.org). This project contributes to NSF's role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The novel steel frame-spine lateral force-resisting system with force-limiting connections (FLC) that will be developed in this project will control multi-modal seismic response to protect a building and provide resilient structural and non-structural building performance. This frame-spine-FLC system will rely on a conventional, economical base system that resists a significant proportion of the lateral load. The system judiciously employs floor-level force-limiting deformable connections and an elastic spine to protect the base system. Integrated experiments and numerical simulations will provide comprehensive understanding of the new frame-spine-FLC system, including rich full-scale experimental data on building seismic performance with combined in-plane, out-of-plane, and torsional response under 3D excitation. The FLCs will be tested using the NHERI facility at Lehigh University. This project will be conducted in collaboration with an ongoing synergistic research program in Japan. The extensive dataset from this integrated U.S.-Japan research program will enable unique comparisons of structural and non-structural performance, including critical acceleration-sensitive hospital contents that directly affect the health and safety of patients. In addition, the dataset will enable the advancement of computational modeling for the assessment of building performance and the development of practical, accurate models for use in design that capture the complex 3D structural response that occurs during an earthquake.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.