Design of a fuse link beam-to-column connection for earthquake resistant moment frames

This paper presents details of numerical investigations on exterior beam-column joint sub-assemblages with a novel fuse link beam-to-column connection. The connection is designed to protect the connected beams and columns of moment frame buildings during strong earthquake shaking by confining the inelasticity within the connection elements. The connection consists of two fuse links and one standard shear tab. Detailed numerical analyses are performed to study the behaviour of the connection including the level of plastic strain distribution around the connection region. First, the results of numerical analyses are validated using experimental results of full-scale experimental investigations on exterior beam-column joint sub-assemblages, which demonstrated the good performance and replaceability of the connection. Then, parametric studies are carried out to identify and investigate the effect of major parameters on the connection behaviour - the key parameters being the geometric parameters of fuse link and the beam depth. Finally, it is shown that the results of the numerical study are in good agreement with those of an analytical model that can be used for proportioning of the fuse link connection at the design stage. Also, the results of the analytical model can be used in global analysis of moment frames using the developed fuse link connection.