Study on the Strengthening Effect of a Typical RC Frame in Wenchuan Earthquake with Attached Substructures

This work is based on a typical RC frame that was closed to the epicenter and collapsed during the Wenchuan Earthquake. The seismic collapse resistance of the frame was strengthened by attached substructures, including conventional brace, buckling restrained brace (BRB) and viscous damper. Collapse fragility analysis based on incremental dynamic analysis is implemented for each strengthening scheme to compare their effects and to analyze the influence of critical parameters. The results show that the viscous damper performs better than the BRB, and the BRB performs better than the conventional brace. With the same strengthening parameters, the A-shaped bracing scheme is better than the X-shaped scheme.