Structural steel components erected in real buildings include a wide range of artifacts. In this case, the word artifact is used to describe both defects and fasteners that create discontinuities in the steel such as notches, nicks, welds, powder actuated fasteners, self-drilling screws, repaired defects, and others. Although artifacts occur in real structures and their presence may affect the ductility of elements subjected to large inelastic strains, there is a dearth of experimental data on the seismic behavior of structural systems with artifacts. For instance, full-scale testing of moment resisting connections is expensive which makes it economically infeasible to experimentally examine the wide range of possible artifact types, artifact locations, and structural configurations. A framework has been developed for evaluating the effect of artifacts on special moment resisting frame (SMRF) plastic hinge regions using relatively economical coupon tests. Cyclic bend tests and monotonic tension tests on flat plate coupons that include artifacts are used to calibrate fracture parameters for different low cycle fatigue models such as the Cyclic Void Growth Model (CVGM), Stress-Weighted Damage Model (SWDM) and Cyclic Damage Plasticity Model (CDPM) which are then used in conjunction with finite element (FE) models to predict fracture initiation in full-scale SMRF connections. The framework is general and can be applied to many types of artifacts and seismic structural systems. Fracture propagation has been studied also using CDPM for full-scale tests using FE finite element software LS-DYNA. Alternatively, recommendations for future work is proposed for developing a new test setup, studying artifacts sensitivity to material thickness, and a method of demonstrating equivalence for the artifacts.