Ozkaynak, Hasan2024-03-132024-03-1320171225-45681598-6217https://doi.org/10.12989/sem.2017.61.4.483https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12662/3744Earthquake excitations may induce important amount of seismic energy into structures. Current design philosophy mainly deals with the plastic deformations of replaceable energy dissipating devices rather than damages accumulated on structural members. Since earthquake damage is substantially concentrated on these devices they could be replaced after severe earthquakes. In this study, the efficiency of steel cushion (SC) on seismic improvement of a vulnerable reinforced concrete (RC) frame is determined by means of several numerical simulations. The cyclic shear behaviors of SCs were determined by performing quasi-static tests. The test results were the main basis of the theoretical model of SCs which were used in the numerical analysis. These analyses were performed on three types of RC frames namely bare frame (BF), full-braced frame (FBF) and semi-braced frame (S-BF). According to analysis results; implementation of SCs has considerable effects in reducing the storey shear forces and storey drifts. Moreover plastic energy demands of structural elements were reduced which indicates a significant improvement in seismic behavior of the RC frame preventing damage accumulation on structural elements. Full-braced frame having SCs with the thickness of 25 mm has better performance than semi-braced frame interms of energy dissipation. However, global energy dissipation demand of S-BF and F-BF having SCs with the thickness of 18 mm are almost similar.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessmetallic dampersshear forcestorey driftenergy dissipationnonlinear time history analysisArticle10.12989/sem.2017.61.4.4832-s2.0-850140829284964Q248361WOS:000397791300006Q2