Performance of Linked Column System under Seismic forces for Concrete Structures

Structures subjected to seismic forces must have adequate strength and stiffness to control inter storey drift in order to prevent damage to structural and nonstructural elements during excitations. Linked column concept for steel structures was proposed by Peter Dusicka et.al(2009) with the objective of utilizing replaceable components that are strategically placed to protect the gravity load carrying system. The non-braced lateral system relies on the inelastic behavior of bolted shear links. In this paper the concept is extended to concrete structures. The replaceable link beams are also designed as concrete structures connected to the columns through bolted joints. Non-linear pushover analysis was used to investigate the performance of a four-story building. The drift limits and base shear were studied. Results show that this system shows better load dissipation capabilities.