Seismic performance of vertical link beam equipped with absorbing plates for creating rocking motion and directing damage

Ductility is a feature which allows a structure to undergo large plastic deformations without any strength loss. Passive control methods reduced the vulnerability of structures to earthquakes by decreasing the seismic demand and improving structural plasticity. One of the passive control systems is the eccentrically braced frame with a vertical shear link (V-EBF), providing good deformation and energy absorption performance due to its proper structure. The present study aims to direct the damage to the absorbing plates of the vertical link beam to allow an appropriate seismic performance and reparability of the structure following an earthquake by establishing the rocking motion mechanism at the area of the vertical link. In this study, a V-EBF with 16–18 absorbing plates of thickness 1.6, 1.8, and 2 cm is analyzed using the nonlinear static analysis and cyclic loading conditions in the finite element software ABAQUS. Regarding the hysteresis curve of the proposed model, it can be observed that there is excellent symmetry between different cycles of the curve, indicating the good seismic behavior of the model. Results show that the shear link absorbs all damages so that other elements of the braced frame remain in their nonlinear plastic region. Also, the level of deformation and vertical displacement of the link beam with 16 plates of the thickness of 1.8 cm is higher by 4.38% than other models and equals 11.182 cm.