Buckling Restrained Braces

Published by on January 12, 2015 11:48 am

Steel, LLC, an Atlanta-based steel fabricator, now incorporates Buckling Restrained Braces into their conventional and complex steel building structures to help increase strength and stiffness. Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) are composed of a slender steel core, continuously supported by a concrete casing in order to prevent buckling under axial compression. The core and the casing are decoupled to prevent interaction between them. BRBs also act as a “seismic fuse” protecting the main load bearing elements of the building from damage, caused by an earthquake.

The concept of BRBs was originally developed in Japan in the 1980s and appeared in the United States in 1994 after the Los Angeles earthquake, causing more than 5,000 injuries and 57 deaths. The earthquake caused property damage estimated to be more than $20 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

The company is seeing the need for more economical solutions providing adequate resistance for new structures increasing. With those needs in mind, Steel, LLC is ensuring that both new construction projects and retrofitting of existing buildings are designed and constructed to protect buildings with any seismic risk.

Buckling Restrained Braces can also serve as a cost-effective alternative to traditional steel systems. Because high behavior (response modification) factors are associated with the BRB system, a building can be designed for lower force levels. These systems have a number of different applications and deliver superior seismic performance that is easy to design and protects the rest of the building structure. Reduction in structural member size and in gusset plate size means more material savings and reduced man-hours.

BRBs are just one of the many intuitive solutions Steel, LLC can incorporate into your design to provide benefits to both the design team as well as the general contractor/owner. To learn more about BRBs and how Steel, LLC can utilize BRBs in your next construction project, please contact us or call (404) 292-7373.