Experimental study on seismic behavior of the damage-control steel plate fuses for beam-to-column connection

• Seismic behavior of damage-control steel plate fuses is experimentally investigated. • Parametric study on influence of fuse dimension and loading protocol is presented. • Buckling is made full use of for better strength control and visible damage indicator. • A method to estimate the fuse’s compressive strength is proposed. Adoption of replaceable damage-control steel plate fuses at the intended location of beam-to-column connection is a potential solution for achieving seismic resilient steel structures. Different from the previous design concept, in this study, buckling of the plate fuse is made full use of to avoid excessive strength increase and also works as a visible damage indicator. Seismic behavior of the proposed damage-control fuses for the beam-to-column connection is studied in detail. Six fuse specimens are designed and experimentally investigated for various fuse dimensions and different loading protocols. Buckling under compression and eventual fracture under tension is the typical failure pattern. The obtained hysteretic curve of the fuse exhibits the feature of asymmetry, with tensile strength larger than compressive strength and the difference becoming larger with the increase of loading amplitude. Different cyclic loading protocols have a greater influence on the ductility than the maximum strength. The compressive strength of the fuse is theoretically estimated, which gives fairly good agreement with the test results. All the fuse specimens can reach the loading amplitude of 5% effective length without fracture. The maximum strength of the fuse degrades with the progress of out-of-plane deformation. The out-of-plane deformation of the fuses could be treated as a visible indicator for determining whether or not to replace the damaged fuse.