About this Research Topic

Background

It has become common knowledge in the earthquake engineering community that proper design of a structure to withstand seismic forces in a highly seismic prone area is not possible without accepting a certain level of damage. That being said, it is essential to explore and establish a rational basis for defining the level of acceptable damage and the location where the damage can emerge and develop. Nowadays, the notion of seismic fuses has found its place within this field as it has been accepted large and wide as a practical solution for safe design. A seismic fuse is introduced as a part of the lateral load bearing system that envelops the earthquake damage in a stable manner while protecting the other parts and leaving them intact. They are installed intentionally to be easily replaceable if not repaired. Research on this topic is ongoing and innovative, bringing together engineering and art.



Under this topic, the aim is to foster the idea of localizing the seismic damage while at the same time protecting the other structural members and the nonstructural elements. As made clear through the extensive research in this area, it is a feasible solution for various structures. The problem is that most of the research tasks have been concentrated on the energy dissipation device itself, not on its performance in the whole structural system. With that in mind, studying both in-plane and out-of-plane behavior of the seismic fuses when mounted in a system it is intended for, is found when examining the action of earthquakes.



Papers outlining the research works on proposing and developing new practical ideas for earthquake energy dissipation systems and devices acting as seismic fuses are invited to be submitted under the presented topic. Both specifically oriented works and state of the art papers are welcome. Especially, experimental tasks where results of performance tests of the device are presented separately or as a part of the whole system, are prioritized. The research themes can be from the following items and alike:



• Innovative seismic fuses for different types of structural systems and building material.



• Description of various types of testing protocols for seismic energy dissipation devices.



• Experimental evaluation of seismic fuse performance in structural prototypes.



• Real performance of energy dissipation devices as observed in the recent large earthquakes.



• Comparative works on the efficiency and effectiveness of novel seismic fuses.



• Developing design recommendations for various types of seismic energy dissipation devices.

Keywords: earthquake, seismic design, energy dissipation, nonlinear behavior, seismic fuse.

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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