Seismic Performance Evaluation of Steel Moment Resisting Frames Including Shear Fuse with Elliptic Holes

The purpose of this study is to investigate and improve the performance of energy absorption and dissipation system in the steel moment frames with short span lengths and deep beams. One of the challenges for designing a steel moment frame system is the existence of some code limitations such as minimum span length and beam depth that designers are required to follow in order to form the plastic hinges at both beam ends. By weakening a part of the beam in its middle, the mechanism of energy dissipation is changed from bending to shear, and this defect is practically eliminated. One of the studies on weakening the middle of the beams is to make circular holes in the beam web. By changing the shape of holes from circular to elliptic and changing the arrangement of the elliptic holes and the angles of the elliptical axes relative to each other and by maintaining constant the hole area reduced from the beam web, according to the models built in Abaqus software and comparing the response of different hole arrangements with circular ones, more ductility has been reported. Thus, in the models in which a combination of vertical and horizontal elliptical holes is used, more energy dissipation has been observed compared to other elliptical cases and 16% more energy dissipation has been calculated compared to the circular case.