UNIVERSIT DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II

SECOND LEVEL COURSE OF STUDY IN

STRUCTURAL AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF STRUCTURES FOR ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

SECOND LEVEL DEGREE THESIS IN

USE OF ELASTO-PLASTIC BOZZO SHEAR-LINK (SLB)

ENERGY DISSIPATORS IN AN INDUSTRIAL
R.C. BUILDING IN LIMA, PERU

ABSTRACT

Supervisors: Candidate:
Prof. Eng. Giorgio SERINO Tobia PEPE
Prof. Eng. Luis M. BOZZO ROTONDO M56/290

Assistant supervisors:
Eng. Daniele LOSANNO
Eng. Iolanda NUZZO

Academic Year 2014-2015

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ABSTRACT

This work of thesis was started during my internship at the professional office
Luis Bozzo Estructuras y Proyectos, S.L., in Barcelona, in the context of the
Erasmus for Traineeship project. This dissertation describes the case study of a L-
shape reinforced concrete building, in Peru. This building is a textile industry
equipped with a particular elasto-plastic shear-link energy dissipator, called Bozzo
Shear-Link (SLB) device. This structure has been already designed and built, but in
the thesis several different configurations are investigated.

In Chapter 1 the project description is introduced. The structure is a 8-storey

building equipped with SLB devices, mounted on top of diagonal braces located in
the building corners. This type of dissipator belongs to metallic yielding devices and
it is realized from a mild steel plate milled in some parts called "windows" with a
smaller thickness, that represent the yielding part of the device. These devices start
dissipating energy for very small lateral displacements; in this way energy dissipation
can start before significant damage to nonstructural elements.
In the chapter the original design with all the structural elements sections and
internal reinforcement are presented, describing in detail the connection between the
brace+device system and the main concrete frame.

Chapter 2 provides a description of seismic design procedures, differentiating

conventional seismic design, based on capacity design criterion, and seismic control
systems, focusing on passive control systems and, in particular, on shear link energy
dissipation devices.

Chapter 3 introduces analytical and numerical modeling of Bozzo shear link;

in particular the first part of the chapter focuses on the different types of analytical
methods; the second part concerns the state-of-art of experimental and numerical
investigations on SLBs. The main results are presented with the aim of introducing a
designing table providing all mechanical parameters for the device design, such as
stiffness, yielding force and yielding displacement. At the end, a further numerical
 ABSTRACT
modeling is presented in order to validate existing results, considering a different
FEM software and a different load condition.

Chapter 4 focuses on the design of the case study according to Peruvian code
provisions, illustrating linear and nonlinear dynamic analysis and results. The
structure was sized through a linear dynamic analysis with a reduction factor R=6.
Then nonlinear pushover analysis have been performed considering nonlinearity
lumped at SLB showing that there is not a very evident nonlinear behavior of the
global structure. This was due to the high stiffness of the main concrete frame, with
respect to the low value of brace stiffness (braces have small square hallow sections).
This condition did not allow devices to work in a proper way, even if yielded.
Then nonlinear dynamic analysis has been performed selecting 6 seismic
events occurred in Peru and modeling the system composed by the brace and the
shear link device as Plastic Wen link. Since no recommendations are provided by the
Peruvian code in relation to the spectral-compatibility issue apart from PGA, this
code can be deemed not adequate because seismic events could be not representative
of the expected seismicity of the site. This consideration is confirmed by the
comparison between the mean spectrum of the selected records and the design elastic
response spectrum of the site.
At the end of the chapter a structural alternative solution of the support system
is presented, considering 10 cm and 15cm thickness concrete panels instead of
original flexible diagonal braces.

In chapter 5 an optimized solution for the design of dissipative braces in the

case study, in terms of both stiffness and yielding force, is presented. In the first part
of the chapter, braces stiffness is increased in order to make devices work in a more
proper way. This optimization confirms that, since diagonal chevron brace and
yielding device work in series, is necessary that the equivalent stiffness of the
dissipative brace is opportunely increased.
Then an optimization in terms of both brace stiffness and yielding force has
been adopted, employing a state-of-art formulation proposed by Losanno et al. The
results of nonlinear dynamic analysis, in terms of roof displacement and acceleration,
show a better structural behaviour. This confirmed the results obtained in the
previous chapter, i.e. dissipative braces as in the effective design do not express their
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duty at best. In addition to this, it comes out that the force optimization cannot be
treated apart from the stiffness problem, indeed if the optimization concerns only the
force, there could be even a worsening as regards the response of the structure.
At the end of the chapter the building has been supposed to be realized in
SantAngelo dei Lombardi (AV), (Campania region) in the south of Italy. After
defining the elastic response spectrum, supposing a soil class C and topographic area
T1, a set of 7 accelograms has been selected through Rexel software, respecting
spectral-compatibility requirements of the Italian code. It turned out that
displacement and acceleration response under Peruvian seismic action are lower than
Italian ones because, due to site conditions and input selection, Italian spectral
accelerations are higher in the case study period range.

In chapter 6 main conclusions are summarized. The present work shows that,
even if the bare frame configuration without dissipative braces is seismo-resistant,
the use of SLB devices allows to achieve a better performance against earthquakes.
Seismic behavior is improved in terms of maximum displacements, interstory drifts
and accelerations thanks to supplemental dissipated energy. The parametric
investigation showed that an effective design of dissipative braces is strongly
dependent on the brace+device system both in terms of equivalent strength and
stiffness .