Seismic performance of concrete frames reinforced with superelastic shape memory alloys

Reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings dissipate the seismic energy through yielding of the reinforcing bars. This yielding jeopardizes the serviceability of these buildings as it results in residual lateral deformations. Superelastic Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) can recover inelastic strains by stress removal. Since SMA is a costly material, this paper defines the required locations of SMA bars in a typical RC frame to optimize its seismic performance in terms of damage scheme and seismic residual deformations. The intensities of five earthquakes causing failure to a typical RC six-storey building are defined and used to evaluate seven SMA design alternatives.