• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.2
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• pp.155-170
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• 2024

Several types of column-beam connections are used in the design of steel structures. This situation causes different cross-section effects and, therefore, different displacements and deformations. In other words, connection elements such as welds, bolts, continuity plates, end plates, and stiffness plates used in steel column-beam connections directly affect the section effects. This matter reveals the necessity of knowing the steel column-beam connection behaviours. In this article, behaviours of bolted column-beam connection with end plate widely used in steel structures are investigated comparatively the effects of the stiffness plates added to the beam body, the change in the end plate thickness and bolt diameter. The results obtained reveal that the moment and force carrying capacity of the said connection increases with the increase in the end plate thickness and bolt diameter. In contrast, it causes the other elements to deform and lose their capacity. This matter shows that optimum dimensions are very important in steel column-beam connections. In addition, it has been seen that adding a stiffness plate to the beam body part positively contributes to the connection's moment-carrying capacity.

• 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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.463-478
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• 2006

The design of structural frameworks for buildings is constantly evolving and is dependent on regional issues such as loading and constructability. One of the most promising recent developments for low to medium rise construction in terms of efficiency of construction, robustness and aesthetic appearance utilises concrete-filled steel tubular sections as the columns in a moment-resisting frame. These are coupled to rigid or semi-rigid connections to composite steel-concrete beams. This paper includes the results of a pilot experimental programme leading towards the development of economical, reliable connections that are easily constructed for this type of frame. The connections must provide the requisite strength, stiffness and ductility to suit gravity loading conditions as well as gravity combined with the governing lateral wind or earthquake loading. The aim is to develop connections that are stiffer, less expensive and easier to construct than those in current use. A proposed fabricated T-stub connection is to be used to connect the beam flanges and the column. These T-stubs are connected to the column using "blind bolts" with extensions, allowing installation from the outside of the tube. In general, the use of the extensions results in a dramatic increase in the strength and stiffness of the T-stub to column connection in tension, since the load is shared between membrane action in the tube wall and the anchorage of the bolts through the extensions into the concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1155-1171
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• 2016

Post-tensioned (PT) steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) with semi-rigid connections (SRC) can be used to control the hysteretic energy demands and to reduce the maximum inter-story drift (${\gamma}$). In this study the seismic behavior of steel MRFs with PT connections is estimated by incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis in terms of dissipated hysteretic energy ($E_H$) demands. For this aim, five PT steel MRFs are subjected to 30 long duration earthquake ground motions recorded on soft soil sites. To assess the energy dissipated in the frames with PT connections, a new expression is proposed for the hysteretic behavior of semi-rigid connections validated by experimental tests. The performance was estimated not only for the global $E_H$ demands in the steel frames; but also for, the distribution and demands of hysteretic energy in beams, columns and connections considering several levels of deformation. The results show that $E_H$ varies with ${\gamma}$, and that most of $E_H$ is dissipated by the connections. It is observed in all the cases a log-normal distribution of $E_H$ through the building height. The largest demand of $E_H$ occurs between 0.25 and 0.5 of the height. Finally, an equation is proposed to calculate the distribution of $E_H$ in terms of the normalized height of the stories (h/H) and the inter-story drift.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.115-130
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• 2017

A new type of moment-resisting bolted connection was developed for use in composite steel- concrete construction to connect composite open section steel beams to concrete filled steel square tubular columns. The connection was made possible using anchored blind bolts along with two through bolts. It was designed to act compositely with the in-situ reinforced concrete slab to achieve an enhanced stiffness and strength. The developed connection was incorporated in the design of a medium rise (five storey) commercial building which was located in low to medium seismicity regions. The lateral load resisting system for the design building consisted of moment resisting frames in two directions. A major full scale test on a sub-assembly of a perimeter moment-resisting frame of the model building was conducted to study the system behaviour incorporating the proposed connection. The behaviour of the proposed connection and its interaction with the floor slab under cyclic loading representing the earthquake events with return periods of 500 years and 2500 years was investigated. The proposed connection was categorized as semi rigid for unbraced frames based on the classification method presented in Eurocode 3. Furthermore, the proposed connection, composite with the floor slab, successfully provided adequate lateral load resistance for the model building.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.35-50
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• 2002

A series of tests on simple-welded plate specimens (SWPS) and T-stub tension specimens simulating some of the joint details in moment frame connections were conducted in this investigation. The effects of weld strength mismatch and weld metal toughness on structural behavior of these specimens were considered under both static and dynamic loading conditions. Finite element analyses were performed by taking into account typical weld residual stress distributions and weld metal strength mismatch conditions to facilitate the interpretation of the test results. The major findings are as follows: (a) Sufficient specimen size requirements are essential in simulating both load transfer and constraint conditions that are relevant to moment frame connections, (b) Weld residual stresses can significantly elevate stress triaxiality in addition to structural constraint effects, both of which can significantly reduce the plastic deformation capacity in moment frame connections, (c) Based on the test results, dynamic loading within a loading rate of 0.02 in/in/sec, as used in this study, premature brittle fractures were not seen, although a significant elevation of the yield strength can be clearly observed. However, brittle fracture features can be clearly identified in T-stub specimens in which severe constraint effects (stress triaxiality) are considered as the primary cause, (d) Based on both the test and FEA results, T-stub specimens provide a reasonable representation of the joint conditions in moment frame connections in simulating both complex load transfer mode and constraint conditions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.357-373
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• 2019

Steel storage racks are slender structures whose overall behavior and the capacity depend largely on the flexural behavior of the base-plate to upright connections and on the behavior of beam-to-column connections. The base-plate upright connection assembly details, anchor bolt position in particular, associated with the high-rise steel storage racks differ from those of normal height steel storage racks. Since flexural behavior of high-rise rack base connection is hitherto unavailable, this investigation experimentally establishes the flexural behavior of base-plate upright connections of high-rise steel storage racks. This investigation used an enhanced test setup and considered nine groups of three identical tests to investigate the influence of factors such as axial load, base plate thickness, anchor bolt size, bracket length, and upright thickness. The test observations show that the base-plate assembly may significantly influence the overall behavior of such connections. A rigid plate analytical model and an elastic plate analytical model for the overall rotations stiffness of base-plate upright connections with concentric anchor bolts were constructed, and were found to give better predictions of the initial stiffness of such connections. Analytical model based parametric studies highlight and quantify the interplay of components and provide a means for efficient maximization of overall rotational stiffness of concentrically anchor bolted high-rise rack base-plate upright connections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.493-499
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• 2017

The behaviour of steel frames is highly influenced by the beam-column connections. Traditionally, Steel frames were usually designed assuming that connections are ideally pinned or fully rigid. A semi-rigid connection, however, creates a balance between the two extreme approaches mentioned above. In this research, two full scales of Extended End Plate Connections (EEPCs) were tested. Mathematical and numerical models were used to analyse the connections, and close correlations were found between these models and the corresponding tested specimens, which confirmed the confidence in the experimental results. The experimental results obtained enrich the available test data about behaviour of EEPC. In addition, the purpose of studying EEPC experimentally is to compare the stiffness and moment-rotation curve of EEPCs with that of Cap Plate Connections (CPCs), which were tested in a previous work. CPCs have not been studied sufficiently in the literature. The results obtained show that the typical CPC reduces the connection stiffness and these results will make a valuable contribution to the available test data in the research area of CPC.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.119-133
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• 2007

Based on stability theory of current rigid steel frames and using the three-column subassemblage model, the governing equations for determining the effective length factor (${\mu}$-factor) of the columns in semirigid composite frames are derived. The effects of the nonlinear moment-rotation characteristics of beam-to-column connections and composite action of slab are considered. Furthermore, using a two-bay three-storey composite frame with semi-rigid connections as an example, the effects of the non-linear moment-rotation characteristics of connections and load value on the ${\mu}$-factor are numerically studied and the ${\mu}$-factors obtained by the proposed method and Baraket-Chen's method are compared with those obtained by the exact finite element method. It was found that the proposed method has good accuracy and can be used in stability analysis of semi-rigid composite frames.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2021

Currently, there is a lack of research in the design approach to avoid column wall failure in the concrete filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) column-beam connections. In this paper, a finite element model has been developed and verified by available experimental data to analyze the failure mechanism of CFDST column-beam connections. Various finite element models with different column hollow ratios (χ) were established. The simulation result revealed that with increasing χ the failure mode gradually changed from yielding of end plate, to local failure of the column wall. Detailed parametric analyses were performed to study the failure mechanism of column wall for the CFDST column-beam connection, in which the strength of sandwiched concrete and steel tube and thickness of steel tube were incorporated. An analytical model was proposed to predict the moment resistance of the assembled connection considering the failure of column wall. The simulation results indicate that the proposed analytical model can provided a conservative prediction of the moment resistance. Finally, an upper bound value of χ was recommend to avoid column wall failure for CFDST column-beam connections.