Base isolation, as well as other control techniques (either passive or active in nature) are getting more and more common among the innovative solutions for seismic protection of both new and existing constructions. In particular, hysteretic devices are successfully adopted for enhancing the dissipative capacity of steel bracings. Several technical solutions have been developed and currently available on the market and other even more innovative ones have been recently studied in the scientific literature. They have been realised considering a broad range of geometrical configurations and materials with the aim of realising different energy dissipation mechanisms, based on either shear, bending or torsion.

This paper investigates the performance of two cost-competitive devices obtained through conventional steelwork procedures which can be employed as link elements on Y-shaped eccentric braces (EB), widely adopted especially for seismic retrofitting of existing structures. After a description of such devices, the key results obtained in recent tests carried out at the Laboratory of Structures of the University of Salerno will be reported. Particularly, the results of cyclic tests carried out according to two different experimental protocols will be utilised to derive the low-cycle fatigue which fully describes their performance under cyclic actions and can be properly employed in seismic design of steel bracings equipped with such devices.