An approach towards embedded structural steel connections for use in an innovative HCW system

Abstract

Structural members behaving as fuse are effectively used in earthquake resistant systems in a conscious effort to concentrate the energy dissipation capacity of the structure in those replaceable components so that the main structure remains undamaged after a major earthquake. However, to ensure the design of fuses, connections necessarily play a very important role. This paper presents a simple, yet efficient connection for a newly suggested Hybrid Coupled Wall (HCW) system, consisting of a reinforced concrete shear wall coupled with steel side columns via dissipative steel shear links. The steel shear links are connected to a steel profile, embedded or passing through the RC wall. This embedded part should be so designed that the damage always occurs on the steel shear links (fuses) prior to any or minimal damage in the RC wall and all other components of the embedded connection. Primary design objective of this study is to characterize the performance of a steel link embedded connection within the RC wall and search for an adequate embedment length for such HCW structures while concentrating the seismic damage to the replaceable links. To this purpose, two types of joint configurations are designed through a capacity based approach, namely “partly embedded” and “passing through” steel beam connection and are studied using several theoretical models with different resistance mechanism validated by numerical simulations. All connection configurations are analysed through nonlinear analyses to optimize the contributions of each structural element in terms of failure mechanism, hysteretic response, strength, stiffness and energy dissipation characteristics.