Earthquake effects on the energy demand of tall reinforced concrete walls with buckling-restrained brace outriggers

Reinforced concrete core-wall structures with buckling-restrained brace outriggers are interesting systems which have the ability to absorb and dissipate energy during strong earthquakes. Outriggers can change the energy demand in a tall building. In this paper, the energy demand was studied by using the nonlinear time history analysis for the mentioned systems. First, the structures were designed according to the prescriptive codes. In the dynamic analysis, three approaches for the corewall were investigated: single plastic hinge (SPH), three plastic hinge (TPH) and extended plastic hinge (EPH). For SPH approach, only one plastic hinge is allowed at the core-wall base. For TPH approach, three plastic hinges are allowed, one at the base and two others at the upper levels. For EPH approach, the plasticity can extend anywhere in the wall. The kinetic, elastic strain, inelastic and damping energy demand subjected to forward directivity near-fault and ordinary far-fault earthquakes were studied. In SPH approach for all near-fault and far-fault events, on average, more than 65 percent of inelastic energy is absorbed by buckling-restrained braces in outrigger. While in TPH and EPH approaches, outrigger contribution to inelastic energy demand is reduced. The contribution of outrigger to inelastic energy absorption for the TPH and EPH approaches does not differ significantly. The values are approximately 25 and 30 percent, respectively.