Development of steel angles as energy dissipation devices for rocking connections

This paper focuses on the development of energy dissipaters for rocking precast systems. The energy dissipaters developed in this work are to be used externally, having the advantages of being easy to inspect and replace after an earthquake. The main parameters to take into account for the development of the energy dissipaters are the cyclic behavior, the strength, and the ductility. The cyclic behavior has to be stable from cycle to cycle. The developed dissipater has to respond with adequate strength. The ductility is also important as the dissipater has to sustain the displacements applied by a major seismic event without failure. For this purpose, the experimental campaign using steel structural angles as dissipaters is described and solutions able to deliver the desired behavior are shown. To support and complement the experimental tests, two-dimensional numerical models using a finite element software are shown and an analytical method is also presented to describe the behavior in both elastic and plastic ranges and thus design the elements. In both cases, good agreement with the experimental results is achieved. The analytical method has the advantage of being easy to implement for estimation of the steel angle response.