Nitinol Belleville elastic nonlinear (Ni-Belle-E-N) structural assembly

Abstract

A structural assembly and a structural bracing system including the structural assembly are presented. The structural assembly includes Belleville disks and shape memory alloy (SMA) rods with nonlinear elastic behavior (e.g., Nitinol rods) to resist lateral force. Stacked Belleville disks are placed between plates resulting in nonlinear elastic behavior in compression. Shape memory alloy rods are placed at the corners of the plates and held by nuts at the exterior faces of the plates. The rods are loose when a compression load is applied to the plates and will work in tension when a tensile load is applied to the plates. A shaft (e.g., steel tube) is placed at the center of the Belleville disks to stabilize the assembly. Addition of the assembly with nonlinear elastic behavior in both tension and compression loadings to a structural bracing system improves the structural behavior of the bracing system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.