Evaluation of the economic criteria of buckling prevented steel crosses in reinforced concrete structures

¬¬¬¬¬¬Our country is located in an earthquake prone to zone and a large portion of our population lives in areas with a high risk of earthquakes. As with many earthquakes in the past, the recent Kahramanmaraş earthquakes on February 6, 2023, caused significant loss of life and property damage. An economic, practical, and safe building design is seen as the most important issue in the construction area from past to present. In this context, the main items in the cost calculation of reinforced concrete structures are concrete, formwork, and reinforcing steel. The effect of using buckling restrained braces (BRBs) in reinforced concrete buildings on the cost of construction and its potential as an alternative to concrete, formwork, and reinforcing steel quantities is being examined in this study.Twenty story reinforced concrete residential buildings located in the Karlıova district of Bingöl province, where the Short Period Design Spectral Acceleration Coefficients (SDS) value is 2.333, were modeled as frame system, shear wall system, and BRB braced frame system. Analyses were conducted and the amount of concrete (m3), formwork (m2), and reinforcing steel (ton) were determined in order to compare them with respect to the most economical condition. In other words, the aim is to examine the behavior and cost of three reinforced concrete buildings with the same usage purpose but different lateral load carrying systems in the same region to obtain the most advantageous design. As a result, the usability of the BRBs instead of reinforced concrete shear walls carrying horizontal loads was evaluated. The 20 story reinforced concrete buildings studied in this thesis were modeled and analyzed in accordance with the 2018 Turkish Earthquake Code (TBDY-2018). Buildings consisting of frame systems and shear walls were designed by using with the STA4CAD program, while the building using BRBs braced building instead of shear elements was designed by using with the ETABS program. The analysis results indicated that the BRBs braced system can be seen as an alternative lateral load caring system instead of shear walls. KEYWORDS: RC structure design, Buckling restrained brace, shear wall, frame system, economical RC design