• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.639-647
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• 2002

A simplified analytical procedure is presented to estimate the reduction of elastic lateral stiffness of steel moment frames arising from the radius-cut dogbone weakening. With the original radius-cut dogbone shape, it is almost impossible or too complicated to integrate analytically the mathematical expressions encountered when applying the conjugate beam method to compute the beam deflection component. In this study, the problem is circumvented by replacing the original radius-cut dogbone with an equivalent dogbone of constant width. The equivalence between the two is established by imposing an equal dogbone elongation criterion. This approach is justified by using a calibrated finite clement analysis. Then, the elastic lateral deflection components from the column, panel zone, and beam are derived for a typical beam-column subassembly. The derived results can be used to evaluate the reduction of the frame lateral stiffness. Case studies conducted within some practical ranges of frame configurations show that the reduction in frame lateral stiffness due to the presence of dogbone cut is on the order of 1 to 2 percent and is reasonably negligible in practical sense.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.557-566
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• 2002

This paper summarized the results of a full-scale cyclic seismic testing on four reduced beam section (RBS) steel moment connections. Specifically, these tests addressed a bolted web versus a welded web connection and strong versus medium panel zone (PZ) strength as key test variables. Specimens with medium PZ strength were designed to promote balanced energy dissipation from both PZ and RBS regions, in order to reduce the requirement for expensive doubler plates. Both strong and medium PZ specimens with welded web connection were able to provide sufficient connection rotation capacity required of special moment-resisting frames. On the other hand, specimens with bolted web connection performed poorly due to premature brittle fracture of the beam flange at the weld access hole. Unlike the case of web-welded specimens, specimens with cheaper bolted web connection could not transfer the actual plastic moment of the original (or unreduced) beam section to the column. No fracture occurred within the beam groove welds of any connection in this testing program. If fracture within the beam flange groove weld is avoided by using quality welding procedure as in this study, the fracture issue tends to move into the beam flange base metal at the weld access hole. Supporting analytical study was also conducted in order to understand the observed base metal fracture from the engineering mechanics perspective.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.2 s.69
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• pp.247-255
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• 2004

An experimental program was undertaken to develop seismic retrofit methods of existing steel moment connections with floor slab for improved seismic performance. Five full-scale composite specimens were tested under cyclic loading. Conventional through-diaphragm connections [please check this; no search results were found for through-diaphragm connections] composed of square-tube column and H-beam were retrofitted by adding either a bottom-flange dogbone (RBS) or an improved welded horizontal stiffener at the beam bottom flange. The effectiveness of the proposed retrofit connections schemes was evaluated. The specimen retrofitted using the RBS concept at the bottom flange showed poor connection ductility. In contrast. specimens with the proposed horizontal stiffener details exhibited improved connection ductility.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.221-230
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• 2003

Employing classical beam theory for the design of RBS seismic steel moment connections was brought into question in this study, Both the experimental strain data and analytical results from the calibrated finite element analysis confirmed that the shear transfer mechanism in the RBS connection is completely different from that as predicted by classical beam theory Plausible explanations of a higher incidence of brittle fractures observed in the specimens with bolted-webs were presented. It was pointed out that the practice of providing web bolts uniformly along the beam depth is not consistent with the load path identified by both experimental and analytical results. More rational bolted-web details were proposed based on the identified principal load path,.