Seismic behavior of active beam links in eccentrically braced frames

An eccentrically braced flame is a structural framing system in which the axial forces in the braving members are transferred either to other braces or to columns through shea and bending in short beam segments called active links. The active link acts as a fuse, dissipating large amounts of input energy upon lateral overloading of the structure and its behavior dominates the behavior of the structure. While experiments have demonstrated the good global behavior of the framing system, the inelastic behavior of the active links was not adequately evaluated, especially as regards the web buckling phenomenon. Furthermore, rigorous analytical tools for the inelastic analysis of the active link elements, and therefore eccentrically braced frames, appear to be lacking.