The attachment of supplemental knee braces is an efficient seismic retrofitting measure for
existing steel buildings. A new ductile knee brace with a built-in comb-shaped damper is
proposed in this study. The proposed ductile knee brace is composed of a wide-flange
section with multiple slot holes in its web plate, which is designed to plasticize earlier at
shear-yielding struts in the comb-shaped web. The isolated knee brace components and
subassemblages reinforced by the proposed knee brace were subjected to cyclic loading …