Numerical Study on Effects of Link Beam Length on Seismic Performance of Steel Braced Frames with Vertical Shear Link

Several Methods have been suggested to prevent formation of plastic hinges in main structural elements. One of the most effective methods for this purpose is use of vertical shear link or Shear Panel System (SPS). In this system, unlike the Eccentrically Braced Frames (EBFs), in which the ductility of the structure is provided through occurring plastic hinge in the floor beam, the plastic hinge forms in the vertical shear link piece while all the other members remain elastic. However, the seismic performance of this system highly depends on the length of vertical shear link. In this paper, the influence of vertical shear link length on behavior of this system is studied. Therefore, several steel braced frames with vertical shear link having different length are modeled in ABAQUS software. It is observed that the shear link length must be restricted to an upper bound in order to act more efficiently.

Keywords:

Vertical Shear Link , Nonlinear Behavior , Ductility , Plastic Hinge , Energy Dissipation