Innovative Structural Fuse Systems for Various Prototype Applications

Abstract

To resist the imposed lateral forces on the structures, hysteric dampers are developed from steel plates and strategically implemented within various structural applications. Structural shear dampers have recently been used to alleviate damage, while remaining members remain intact and undamaged. The practical use of the innovative dampers in structural applications is investigated in this study. For this purpose, the design methodology for a set of innovative shear dampers is initially elaborated, for which the dampers are designed considering the governing shear and flexural ductile limit states, while the brittle buckling limit state is prevented. Subsequently, the finite element modeling methodology is verified and compared to laboratory tests for computationally analyzing various shapes of the shear damper in structural applications. Three major general prototype structures are established, and shear dampers are designed to be incorporated in prototype applications. For each of the proposed applications, at least six different shapes of shear dampers are designed and subsequently compared with conventional systems. The results determined that the use of innovative shear dampers could effectively reduce demand forces on the boundary elements by more than 40% on average, while the strength and the stiffness alter within margin of difference less than 5%.