Novel reversible seismic-resistant joint for sustainable and deconstructable steel structures

In this paper, a novel friction-resistant steel joint, allowing for easy repair, disassembly and reuse of structural elements, is presented. Thanks to specifically designed friction-based bolted clamps, the joint is fully restrained under serviceability conditions, while dissipates energy under life safety level seismic actions. In case of damage, the joint can be repaired since the clamps can be easily adjusted and even removed. In case of complete disassembly, structural profiles can be recovered and reused since they remain intact in both production (no bolt-holes and no welds) and use phase (no plastic deformations). In the paper, the main steps of the structural design of the joint are described. Moreover, FE analyses demonstrating the suitability of the adopted hypothesis on its main components are presented.