Stainless steel has gained increasing attention in construction due to its sustainability, excellent ductility, and superior resistance to corrosion and fire, making it especially suitable for use in seismic-prone areas. This study introduces all-stainless-steel assembled buckling-restrained brace (ASS-BRB), comprising rapidly installable and removable restraining units. All components of the proposed ASS-BRB are made from stainless-steel plates and bolts, combining the corrosion resistance and strain-hardening characteristics of stainless steel to ensure long service life and high post-yield stiffness. Experimental tests are conducted on a total of three austenitic stainless steel STS304 BRB specimens to evaluate their cyclic behaviour. The resulting hysteretic response, failure modes, energy dissipation capacities, strength-adjustment factors, cumulative plastic deformation (CPD) and post-yield stiffness are analyzed. The STS304-BRBs demonstrated enhanced hysteretic performance, particularly significant higher stiffness at 2% and 3% strain amplitudes. Additionally, finite element models were created in ABAQUS, and their outcomes closely matched the experimental results, confirming the accuracy of the modeling approach. The developed stainless-steel BRBs are expected to contribute significantly to the advancement of resilient, durable, and corrosion-resistant seismic protection systems for built structures.
Hussain et al. (Tue,) studied this question.