US-12618255-B2 - Seismic wall fuse

Abstract

One or more seismic wall fuses that wrap around the edge of a building wall, the seismic wall fuses having a first wall panel on one side of the wall and a second wall panel on the other side of the wall, and an edge panel along the edge of the wall connected to the first and second wall panels. Each of the first and second wall panels have: a top portion that is attached to the wall, a mid portion that deforms to absorb seismic stresses, and a bottom portion that is also attached to the wall. In operation, the mid-portion of the first wall panel expands while the mid-portion of the second wall panel simultaneously contracts (or vice versa), thereby dissipating seismic energy in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the wall, which could otherwise topple the wall.

Inventors

• Garrett R. HAGEN

Assignees

• DEGENKOLB ENGINEERS

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20240307

Claims (18)

1. 1 . A seismic wall fuse, comprising: a first planar wall panel configured to be positioned flat against a wall, and a second planar wall panel configured to be positioned flat against the wall such that the first and second wall panels are parallel to one another, and wherein each of the first and second planar wall panels comprise: a non-deformable top portion that is configured to be attached flat against the wall, a deformable mid portion that is configured to deform to absorb seismic stresses by deforming in a direction parallel to the plane of the wall, and a non-deformable bottom portion that is configured to be attached flat against the wall, wherein the non-deformable top portion is separated from the deformable mid portion by a first slot cut inwardly from a side edge of the wall panel, and wherein the non-deformable bottom portion is separated from the deformable mid portion by a second slot cut inwardly from a side edge of the wall panel.
2. 2 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , wherein: the mid-portion of the first wall panel deforms to expand while the mid-portion of the second wall panel simultaneously deforms to contract, and the mid-portion of the first wall panel deforms to contract while the mid-portion of the second wall panel simultaneously deforms to expand.
3. 3 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , further comprising: an edge panel connected on one side to the first wall panel and on another side to the second wall panel, wherein the edge panel is oriented perpendicular to the first and second wall panels such that the seismic wall fuse can be positioned to wrap around the edge of a wall.
4. 4 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , further comprising: a plurality of wall connectors passing through the first and second wall panels to connect the first and second wall panels to opposite sides of a wall.
5. 5 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 4 , wherein the first and second wall panels have apertures passing therethrough and wherein the apertures in the first and second wall panels are aligned such that the wall connectors pass through the aligned apertures in both the first and second wall panels.
6. 6 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 5 , wherein the wall connectors are bolts.
7. 7 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , wherein the laterally extending slits are diamond shaped.
8. 8 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , wherein the wall panel deforms to absorb seismic stresses by: widening the slots when the wall panel is stretched, and narrowing the slots when the wall panel is compressed.
9. 9 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , further comprising: a third slot separating upper and lower regions of the mid-portion of the wall panel.
10. 10 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 9 , wherein the first and second slots are cut inwardly in a first direction and the third slot is cut inwardly in a second direction, the first and second directions being opposite to one another.
11. 11 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , further comprising: a wall, wherein the first and second wall panels are connected to opposite sides of the wall.
12. 12 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 11 , wherein the wall is made of concrete.
13. 13 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 11 , further comprising: a base plate connected to the bottom of the wall; and a connection plate assembly connected both to the base plate and to the first and second wall panels.
14. 14 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 13 , further comprising: a plurality of foundation anchors connecting the base plate to a building foundation.
15. 15 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 13 , further comprising: a shear key connected to the base plate, wherein the shear key is receivable into an aperture in the wall.
16. 16 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 1 , wherein a pair of the seismic wall fuses are nested together around the edge of a building wall.
17. 17 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 16 , further comprising: a connection plate assembly nested around the pair of seismic wall fuses.
18. 18 . The seismic wall fuse of claim 11 , wherein the wall is made of: wood, masonry, or cross-laminated timber.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates in general to structures for dissipating seismic energy in a building, and in particular to structures for dissipating seismic energy in a concrete building wall. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A variety of seismic devices exist for reinforcing different building structures and for helping to dissipate earthquake energy in buildings. Such devices may include various yielding devices and/or various vibration damping devices. A seismic fuse is an example of such a yielding device. In short, a seismic fuse is a steel assembly that is positioned between the ends of two beam sections and deforms as the beam sections move with respect to one another. Typically, a seismic fuse is installed with its two beam sections being connected to opposite diagonal corners of the frame of a wall. As such, the seismic fuse provides seismic reinforcement in directions in the plane of the wall itself. Although seismic fuses are very useful, they are limited in that they only dissipate seismic energy across the plane of a wall. What would instead be desirable is to provide a seismic wall fuse assembly that would instead dissipate seismic loading in a plane perpendicular to the wall itself (for example, when one side of the wall is under tension and the other side of the wall is under compression). As such, the desired seismic fuse would dissipate energy in directions that would otherwise tend to topple over the wall. In addition, it would also be desirable to provide such a seismic fuse system that is both fast and relatively easy to assemble. It would also be desirable to provide such a new seismic wall fuse system that can be easily retrofit into existing building walls, and especially onto concrete walls connected to building foundations. As will be shown, the present invention provides such a system. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a seismic wall fuse that is easy to attach onto the side edge of a building wall (such as a concrete building wall) to provide seismic energy dissipation. A unique advantage of the present system is that it resists seismic loading perpendicular to the plane of the wall (e.g.: when one side of the wall is under compression and the other side of the wall is in tension). As such, the present system resists seismic energy in the direction of the wall “toppling over”. In preferred aspects, the present system provides a seismic wall fuse, comprising: a first wall panel and a second wall panel, wherein the first and second wall panels are positioned in parallel on opposite sides of an edge of the wall. Preferably, each of the first and second wall panels comprise: a top portion that is configured to be attached to the wall, a mid-portion that is configured to deform to absorb seismic stresses, and a bottom portion that is also configured to be attached to the wall. In operation, the mid-portion of the first wall panel deforms to expand while the mid-portion of the second wall panel simultaneously deforms to contract, and vice versa. In various preferred aspects, the seismic wall fuse also includes an edge panel connected on one side to the first wall panel and on another side to the second wall panel. The edge panel is oriented perpendicular to the first and second wall panels such that the seismic wall fuse wraps around the edge of a wall. In optional preferred embodiments, two or more of the present seismic wall fuses may be nested to wrap one around the other around the edge of the wall. In further optional embodiments, a connection plate may be used to secure the seismic wall fuse to the building foundation. This connection plate may optionally be positioned in a nested configuration with one or more of the seismic wall fuses. A unique advantage of the present system is that the same connectors that are to secure the first wall panel to one side of the wall may be used to secure the second wall panel to the opposite side of the wall. This may be achieved by having a plurality of wall connectors (such as bolts) passing through aligned holes in the first and second wall panels. In addition, the same connectors can be used to secure the seismic wall fuse to a base plate connected to the building foundation (thereby securing the seismic wall fuse to the building foundation while avoiding the need for additional connectors and fasteners). The mid-portions of the wall panels deform (i.e.: expand or contract) to dissipate seismic energy. In preferred aspects, the mid-portions of each wall panel comprises a plurality of laterally extending slits. These slits may preferably be diamond shaped. The mid-portions of these wall panels may also have a plurality of slots that are cut inwardly from opposite sides of the wall panel. These slots are preferably cut into opposite sides of the wall panel to widen when the wall panel is stretched, and to narrow when the wall panel is compressed. In optional preferred aspects, the present system may also inclu