Feasibility of using reduced length superelastic shape memory alloy strands in post-tensioned steel beam-column connections

Driven by a need to reduce repair costs and downtime in structures following a major earthquake, self-centering systems have been introduced. Post-tensioned high strength steel strands have shown promising results in providing self-centering capability in steel frames, where the beams are compressed to columns. This study aims at investigating the feasibility of using reduced length of steel and shape memory alloy strands in steel beam-column connections. Through finite element modeling, the study first evaluates the effect of using short-length regular post-tensioned strands in steel connections. The results show higher strength, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity for connections with shorter length regular post-tensioned strands. The moment capacity and energy absorption capacity of a post-tensioned beam-column connection with one-third strand length were 105% and 114% higher than those of with full-length strands, respectively. However, residual drifts increased from 4 to 39mm. To avoid loss in the re-centering capability of such connections due to yielding/failing of post-tensioned steel strands, the application of shape memory alloy and hybrid strands are proposed. The results show that shorter length shape memory alloy strands are effective in regaining self-centering and dissipating higher amount of energy compared to the full-length steel strands.