Due to the continuous development of codes of practice and design guidelines, existing moment-resisting 
frames might become deficient because of not satisfying the requirements of them. On the other hand, yielding 
metallic dampers are one of the most commonly known methods to strengthen deficient buildings to safely 
withstand seismic excitations. Therefore, this research presents an assessment of the seismic performance of 
moment-resisting frames strengthened with a particular type of yielding metallic dampers known as the 
“vertical shear link" using the finite element software ETABS (18.0.0). For this purpose, five-, ten-, and fifteenstory steel buildings that are designed to resist gravity loads only are installed with vertical shear links and their 
response is evaluated using modal, pushover, and time-history analyses. The vertical shear links are made of 
either steel or magnesium and they are installed in different locations throughout the buildings. Modal analysis
results indicate that the installation of vertical shear links shortens the fundamental period of the buildings. 
Moreover, the pushover curves underscore the efficiency of vertical shear links in upgrading the performance 
level of the buildings. However, this does not apply for the fifteen-story building since the number of the
installed vertical shear links is found to be not sufficient. Time-history analysis also confirms the same findings 
since, in contrast to the five- and ten-story buildings, the story displacements and interstory drifts of the fifteenstory building are not significantly decreased after strengthening. Also, the vertical shear links are found to 
participate in dissipating a considerable amount of seismic energy