Behavior of Long‐Slotted Perforated Steel Plate Fuses in Timber Brace End Connections

ABSTRACT Steel perforated plate fuses have emerged as a promising solution for mass timber seismic force‐resisting systems, offering tunable energy dissipation mechanisms, such as flexural and shear yielding, through geometric adjustments. This study examines the cyclic performance of perforated steel plate fuses employed in timber braced frames, with a focus on long‐slotted perforations that exhibit flexural yielding behavior. Fourteen full‐scale specimens were tested under the ASTM E2126 Method C cyclic loading protocol. The study explored the effects of slot length, number of links, number of dowels, and double‐ended fuse arrangements. The long‐slotted perforation pattern consistently exhibited plastic hinge formation at the ends of the link elements between the slot openings. Increasing the link length from 75 mm to 100 mm significantly enhanced the ultimate deformation capacity, attributed to greater flexural rotation at the plastic hinge regions within link elements. However, this improvement in ductility came at the cost of a 30% reduction in load capacity. To address this issue, increasing the number of links from 5 to 15 resulted in substantial gains in load capacity, with a linear proportional relationship observed. Dowel connections in fuse‐controlled systems provide capacity protection within an overstrength factor range of Ω = 1.3 to 1.6. The results underline the feasibility of using long‐slotted perforated plate fuses, owing to their high ultimate deformation capacity and the ability for both fuse ends to yield simultaneously, effectively doubling the ultimate deformation potential and enhancing the overall seismic resilience of the system. System‐level analysis showed that these plates can improve the drift ratio by up to 2.25%. By utilizing this yielding fuse connection, the system can be classified as moderately ductile, indicating the promising performance of this seismic fuse, pending more comprehensive verification at the system level.