Investigation on the Seismic Performance of High-Strength Bolt-Rubber (HSBR) Connection in a Steel Frame

Abstract

The existing buildings can be improved under the seismic effect by adding rubber to the bolts in the connection. The buildings when maintenance work is happening there is a problem many times and it should be evacuated and requires high cost. This study aims to maintain the building without having to remove it and at a very low cost compared to other methods. This study includes six models divided into two groups. The two groups differ in terms of the number of bolts in the contact area between the column and the beam in the steel frame. The first group models contain four bolts in the connection area and the second group forms contain five bolts in the contact area. Each group includes three models representing the first form of a reference model that has not rubber material around the bolts in the connection area, the second model contains 150% rubber than a bolt diameter around one bolt of the connection area, and all the bolts in the connection area in the third model are warped with rubber. The presence of rubber around one bolt gave a load, displacement, drifting, damping ratio, ductility index energy dissipation close to models where all contact bolts are warped with rubber material.