Development of a rocking R/C shear wall system implementing repairable structural fuses

In the last decades, the concept of earthquake resilient structural systems is becoming popular in which the rocking structure is considered as a viable option for buildings in regions of high seismicity. To this end, a novel wall-base connection based on the ‘‘repairable structure’’ approach is proposed and evaluated. The proposed system is made of several steel plates and high strength bolts act as a friction connection. To achieve the desired rocking motion in the proposed system, short-slotted holes are used in vertical directions for connecting the steel plates to the shear wall (SW). The experimental and numerical studies were performed using a series of displacement control quasi-static cyclic tests on a reference model and four different configurations of the proposed connection installed at the wall corners. The seismic response of the proposed system is compared to the conventional SW in terms of energy dissipation and damage accumulation. In terms of energy dissipation, the proposed system depicted better performance with 95% more energy dissipation capability compared to conventional SW. In terms of damage accumulation, the proposed SW system is nearly undamaged compared to the conventional wall system, which was severely damaged at the wall-base region. Overall, the introduced concept presents a feasible solution for R/C structures when a low-damage design is targeted, which can improve the seismic performance of the structural system significantly.