• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.17 no.6 s.79
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• pp.689-697
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• 2005

Recent test results on reduced beam section (RBS) steel moment connections show that specimens with a bolted web connection tend to perform poorly due to premature brittle fracture of the beam flange at the weld access hole. A review of previous test results indicates that the higher incidence of base metal fracture in bolted-web specimens is related, at least in part, to the web bolt slippage and the high stress concentration at the weld access hole with the lowest material toughness. The practice of providing web bolts uniformly along the beam depth based on the classical beam theory is questioned in this paper. A new seismic design procedure, which is more consistent with the actual load path identified from the analytical and experimental studies, is proposed together with improved connection details. A test specimen designed following the proposed procedure exhibited a cyclic connection rotation capacity sufficient for special moment frames without fracture.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.87-96
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• 2004

Recent test results on reduced beam section (RBS) steel moment connections showed that specimens with a bolted web tended to perform poorly due to premature brittle fracture of the beam flange at the weld access hole. The measured strain data appeared to imply that a higher incidence of base metal fracture in bolted-web specimens is related to, at least in part, the increased demand on the beam flanges due to the web bolt slippage and the actual load transfer mechanism which is completely different from that usually assumed in connection design. In this paper, the practice of providing web bolts uniformly along the beam depth was brought into question. A new seismic design procedure, which is more consistent with the actual load path identified from the analytical and experimental studies, was proposed together with improved connection details.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.75-84
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• 2010

In current seismic design provisions, a reduced beam section with bolted web (RBS-B) connections is only permitted for intermediate moment frames (IMF). This study evaluated the seismic performance of steel moment resisting frame systems having RBS-B connections designed according to current seismic design provisions. For this purpose, 12 archetypal IMF systems having two different span lengths (9m, 6m) were designed considering two design load levels (SDC $C_{max}$, SDC $C_{min}$). A nonlinear analytical model that can simulate hysteretic behavior of an RBS-B connection was also developed in this study. The procedures specified in ATC 63 are used to conduct a seismic performance evaluation. Moreover, this study conducts the seismic performance evaluation of IMF systems designed according to a new design method proposed by the authors in the previous study. It was observed that several model frames designed according to current seismic design provisions did not provide satisfactory collapse margin ratios (ACMR). This study also showed that the model frames designed according to the new design procedures had a sufficient ACMR.