Shear Failure Behavior of Y-Eccentrically Brace in RC Frame Structures under Earthquake Action

In order to study the mechanical characteristics and the shear failure behavior under earthquake action, a single-storey single-span RC frame structure strengthened with Y-eccentrically brace were designed and manufactured to be 1/3 scale. The pseudo-dynamic testing method was carried out under El-Centro earthquake action with different peak acceleration adjusted by Code for Seismic Design of Buildings in mainland China. The testing result indicates that RC frame structure strengthened with Y-eccentrically steel brace presents perfect seismic performance under strong earthquake action, at one time, the seismic performance maybe affected by the length of outsourcing steel at the joint between energy dissipation element of eccentric steel brace and RC frame beam. The joint should be considerably designed to make sure that shear failure can firstly occur in energy dissipation element.