Effect of aluminum and low yield steel on behavior of vertical links

Eccentrically steel braced frame systems are effectively used for the retrofitting of reinforced concrete and steel structures or the design of earthquake resistant steel structures. The link elements, which are the energy dissipative elements of eccentrically braced frames, can be placed either horizontally or vertically. Especially in the reinforced concrete structures' strengthening, the use of vertical links has significant advantages such as connecting it to the main beam and its replacement after an earthquake. In this study, vertical link (shear) elements, which are the characteristic elements of the eccentrically braced frame, are designed using different materials and section types and its nonlinear pushover analyses are performed. Both finite element models and analyses were performed by using the software that is ANSYS 2022 R1. The section type I, box and pipe sections for the link models, whilst the material structural steel, low yield stress steel and aluminum materials are considered. After the analyses, the shear force carrying capacity, stiffness and energy consumption capacities and stress distributions of the link models were obtained. The obtained results were evaluated in terms of materials and section types. Aluminum and low-yield steel materials performed high performance in terms of shear capacity and energy consumption capacity.