Study of Seismic Evaluation and Development of Innovative Curved Lateral Bracing System

This study focuses on the seismic evaluation of an innovative high energy dissipative curved lateral bracing system. Unlike ordinary bracing systems, the system developed in the present study does not produce buckling, making it highly yielding, ductile, with greater load carrying capacity. The system showed appropriate initial stiffness, making it an ideal solution for structures in earthquake-prone areas. The research aims to determine the optimal thickness of the bracing and investigate the effect of span ratio on the performance of the proposed system. In addition, the study compares the performance of the proposed system with and without OGrid bracing, as well as variations in the frame and pattern of bracing. The results show that the OGrid bracing provides better performance than other bracings. The analysis of the proposed system was carried out using ANSYS Workbench 2022 R2, a finite element software tool commonly used for structural analysis. From the analysis it was found that OGrid-I bracing exhibited good ductility and load-carrying properties compared to other types of bracing. Overall, the innovative high energy dissipative curved lateral bracing system with OGrid bracing holds great promise for seismic evaluation and the findings from this project can contribute to the development of safer structures in earthquake-prone regions.