• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.785-808
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• 2016

An innovative Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, called Tubular Web RBS connection (TW-RBS), has been recently introduced and its performance has been numerically investigated in some earlier studies. The TW-RBS connection is a kind of accordion-web RBS connection in which part of the flat web of the beam is replaced by a steel tube at the expected region of the plastic hinge. This paper presents experimental results of three TW-RBS connections under cyclic loading. Obtained results indicated that TW-RBS reduces contribution of the beam web to the whole moment strength and creates a ductile fuse far from components of the beam-to-column connection. Besides, TW-RBS connection can increase story drift capacity up to 9% in the case of shallow beams which is much more than those stipulated by the current seismic codes. Based on the experimental results, the tubular web in the plastic hinge region improves lateral-torsional buckling stability of the beam such that only local buckling of the beam flange at the center of the reduced section was observed during the tests. In order to achieve a better understanding, behavior of all TW-RBS specimens are also numerically investigated and compared with those of experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.571-583
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• 2017

A kind of accordion-web RBS connection, "Tubular Web RBS (TW-RBS)" connection is proposed in this research. TW-RBS is made by replacing a part of web with a tube at the desirable location of the beam plastic hinge. This paper presents first a numerical study under cyclic load using ABAQUS finite element software. A test specimen is used for calibration and comparison of numerical results. Obtained results indicated that TW-RBS would reduce contribution of the beam web to the whole moment strength and creates a ductile fuse far from components of the beam-to-column connection. Besides, TW-RBS connection can increase story drift capacity up to 9% in the case of shallow beams which is much more than those stipulated by the current seismic codes. Furthermore, the tubular web like corrugated sheet can improve both the out-of-plane stiffness of the beam longitudinal axis and the flange stability condition due to the smaller width to thickness ratio of the beam flange in the plastic hinge region. Thus, the tubular web in the plastic hinge region improves lateral-torsional buckling stability of the beam as just local buckling of the beam flange at the center of the reduced section was observed during the tests. Also change of direction of strain in arc shape of the tubular web section is smaller than the accordion webs with sharp corners therefore the tubular web provides a better condition in terms of low-cycle fatigue than other accordion web with sharp corners.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.421-433
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• 2017

Experimental and numerical studies of a newly developed Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, called Tubular Web RBS connection (TW-RBS) have been recently conducted. This paper presents experimental and numerical results of extending the plastic hinge length on the beam flange to increase energy dissipation of a proposed version of the TW-RBS connection with two pipes, (TW-RBS(II)), made by replacing a part of flat web with two steel tubular web at the desirable location of the beam plastic hinge. Two deep-beam specimens with two pipes are prepared and tested under cyclic loads. Obtained results reveal that the TW-RBS(II) like its type I, increases story drift capacity up to 6% in deep beam much more than that stipulated by the current seismic codes. Based on test results, the proposed TW-RBS(II) helps to dissipate imposed energy up to 30% more than that of the TW-RBS(I) specimens at the same story drift and also reduces demands at the beam-to-column connection up to 30% by increasing plastic hinge length on the beam flange. The TW-RBS(II) specimens are finally simulated using finite element method showing good agreement with experimental results.