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US 6,662,506 B2Granted
Collapse-resistant frame system for structures
OwnerGregor D. Fischer, Victor C. Liinventors
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OwnerGregor D. Fischer, Victor C. Liinventors
Estimating the term…
A collapse-resistant frame system (10) for a bridge or building structure includes a plurality of mechanically-interconnected columns (12) and beams (14). At least the lowermost columns are formed of a material (28) that exhibits quasi-elastic behavior in response to seismic excitation, while the beams of the frame system are formed of a material (22) that exhibits elastic/plastic behavior, such that quasi-elastic flexure of the columns under seismic loading will cause plastic hinge formation in the beam ends (26) to thereby dissipate the rotational energy without significant plastic hinge formation in the column bases. In a disclosed embodiment, the column material is an engineered cementitious composite (ECC) matrix (30) reinforced with fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) (32) to thereby provide a relatively-high flexural strength member having a relatively-lower flexural stiffness and higher elastic deformation limit, while the beam material is an ECC matrix reinforced with mild steel rebar (34) to thereby provide a relatively-lower flexural strength member featuring high energy-absorbing capacity.
In a frame system for use in a building or bridge structure having a plurality of interconnected beams and columns, the improvement wherein the beams are formed of a first material that enables the beams to exhibit an elastic/plastic behavior, and the columns are formed of a second material that enables the columns to exhibit quasi-elastic behavior over a range of flexural deformation sufficient to allow plastic hinge formation in at least one of the beams and prevent plastic hinge formation in the columns.
A collapse-resistant frame system comprising:
A collapse-resistant frame system comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.