M. Shadfaran - PhD candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, Sahand University Of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.
K. Abedi - Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sahand University Of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.
M.R. Chenaghlou - Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sahand University Of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.

A force limiting device (FLD) ideally limits the compression force in the member of a space structure to a pre-determined level which would remain constant under increasing deflection. Artificial ductility can be created in structures behavior using FLDs. As we know, the buckling restrained braces (BRBs) do not buckle in compression and show the same load-deformation behavior in both compression and tension and higher ductility capacity. Our aim in this paper is to introduce a novel force limiting device inspired by BRBs. The load-deformation behavior of a FLD, composed of a circle shaped core and an external tube as a restraining element is investigated. A nonlinear Analysis is used to evaluate the theoretical load-deformation characteristics of this new FLD using ABAQUS. The results show that, FLDs would exhibit elastic-plastic load deflection characteristics instead of highly unstable, brittle, post-buckling characteristics of compression members.

Force limiting device, Buckling restrained brace, load-deformation behavior