Topology optimization of vertical shear links in eccentrically braced frames

The inclusion of additive manufacturing (AM) in the construction industry has opened new perspectives on the production of structural members. By coupling AM technologies with topology optimization (TO), significant reductions in material usage and weight can be achieved. Although TO has been applied to optimize simply supported beams, additional factors such as stress concentrations, buckling, and low-cycle fatigue from seismic loads require further investigation. This study presents a numerical approach for optimizing shear links subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. The numerical models for conventional shear links were validated against experimental work, including cyclic loading tests on individual shear links and scaled eccentrically braced frames (EBF). The implementation of TO led to a 12 % volume reduction in the first optimized link. The optimized link demonstrated superior performance, exhibiting higher shear strength and energy dissipation capacity under both monotonic and cyclic loading. Another study examined EBFs with vertical links, achieving 12 % and 30 % reduction in material volume. The optimized links showed improvements that reached 25 % compared to the conventional link in terms of strength and energy dissipation with 12 % volume reduction, while 30 % volume reduction showed slightly less improvement over EBFs with conventional shear links.