EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS ON THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF FULL-SCALE STEEL TRUSS COUPLING BEAMS

Based on a low-cyclic loading experimental study on 4 full-scale specimens of a new type of steel truss coupling beam, the failure patterns and the load-displacement hysteretic curves of the beams’ loading point were studied, and the beams’ ductility, rigidity degradation discipline and energy dissipation mechanism were analyzed as well. Nonlinear finite element analyses were conducted on these beams under monotonic loading and low cyclic loading using ABAQUS. The result of finite element calculation and test shows that the load-displacement curves and bearing capacities’ characteristic points of both methods are in a good agreement, which all prove that the steel truss coupling beam has good ductility and good ability of dissipating earthquake energy. Parametric analyses were carried on to investigate the influences of the sections of web members and chord members, and the span-to-depth ratio on the beams’ mechanical property, which can be available for reference of further research and aseismic design of the steel truss coupling beam system.