• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제31권5호
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• pp.453-467
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• 2019

Portal frame structures, made up of cold-formed steel trusses, are increasingly being used for lightweight building construction. A novel pin-jointed moment connector, called the Howick Rivet Connector (HRC), was developed and tested previously in T-joints and truss assemblage to determine its reliable strength, stiffness and moment resisting capacity. This paper presents an experimental study on the HRC, in moment resisting cold-formed steel trusses. The connection method is devised where intersecting truss members are confined by a gusset connected by HRCs to create a rigid moment connection. In total, three large scale experiments were conducted to determine the elastic capacity and cyclic behaviour of the gusseted truss moment connection comprising HRC connectors. Theoretical failure loads were also calculated and compared against the experimental failure loads. Results show that the HRCs work effectively at carrying high shear loads between the members of the truss, enabling rigid behaviour to be developed and giving elastic behaviour without tilting up to a defined yield point. An extended gusset connection has been proposed to maximize the moment carrying capacity in a truss knee connection using the HRCs, in which they are aligned around the perimeter of the gusset to maximize the moment capacity and to increase the stability of the truss knee joint.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.487-498
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• 2024

Steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) typically have inter-story drift concentrations at lower stories during earthquakes as found from previous research. Hinged walls (HWs) can be used as structural strengthening components to force the MRFs deform uniformly along the building height. However, large moment demands are often observed on HWs and make the design of HWs non-economical. This paper proposes a method to reduce the moment demand on HWs using a ductile connection system between the MRFs and the HWs. The ductile connection system is designed with a yield strength and energy dissipation capacity, for the purpose of limiting the seismic forces transferred to the HWs and dissipating seismic energy. Nonlinear time history analyses were performed using 10 far-filed earthquakes at maximum considered earthquake level. The analysis results show that the proposed ductile connection system can reduce: (1) seismic moment demands in the HWs; (2) floor accelerations; (3) the connection force between HWs and MRFs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제23권1호
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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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• 제6권3호
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• pp.203-219
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• 2006

One of the most promising ways through which a steel moment frame may attain high energy dissipating capability is to trim off a portion of the beam flanges near the column face. This type of moment connection, known as Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connection, has notable superiority in comparison with other moment connection types. As the result of the advantages of RBS moment connection, it has widely being used in practice. In spite of the good hysteretic behaviour, an RBS beam suffers from an undesirable drawback, which is local and lateral instability of the beam. The instability in the RBS beam reduces beam load-carrying capacity. This paper aims to investigate key issues influencing cyclic behaviour of RBS beams. To this end, a numerical analysis was conducted on a series of steel subassemblies with various geometric properties. The obtained results together with the existing experimental data are used to study the instability of RBS beams. A new slenderness concept is presented to control an RBS beam for combined local and lateral instability. This concept is in good agreement with the numerical and experimental results. Finally, a model is developed for the prediction of the magnitude of moment degradation owing to the instability of an RBS beam.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• 한국지진공학회논문집
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• 제3권4호
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• pp.33-46
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• 1999

캘리포니아의 강구조 모멘트프레임은 1994년 노스리지 지진시 6.8의 규모와 진앙지에서 근접한 지리적인 악조건에도 불구하고 붕괴나 인명피해 없이 잘 견뎌냈다. 그러나 이후 시행된 조사에서 경제적으로 지진시 안전하다고 믿어져 널리 쓰인 welded flange-bolted web(WFBW) 강접합부(moment connection)의 기둥과 용접의 경계면에서 취성 파괴가 다수 발견되었다. 이논문은 선형파괴역학과 노스리지진이후의 WFBW 강접합부 실험을 이용하여 WFBW 강접합부와 노스리지지진이후 기존 강접합부의 대안으로 추천되고 있는 reduced beam section (RBS) 강접합부의 취성 파괴강도를 결정하는 수치적인 방법을 제안하고 이를 이용하여 이들 강접합부의 취성 파괴모드를 추정하였다.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.271-286
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• 2017

The use of Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) provides an alternative for steel buildings in seismic zones, with the advantage over WF columns that the HSS columns have similar resistance along both axes and enhanced performance under flexure, compression and torsion with respect to other columns sections. The HSS columns have shown satisfactory performance under seismic loads, such as observed in buildings with steel moment frames in the Honshu earthquake (2011). The purpose of this research is to propose a new moment connection, EP-HSS ("End-plate to Hollow Structural Section"), using a wide flange beam and HSS column where the end plate falls outside the range of prequalification established in the ANSI/AISC 358-10 Specification, as an alternative to the traditional configuration of steel moment frames established in current codes. The connection was researched through analytical, numerical (FEM), and experimental studies. The results showed that the EP-HSS allowed the development of inelastic action on the beam only, avoiding stress concentrations in the column and developing significant energy dissipation. The experiments followed the qualification protocols established in the ANSI/AISC 341-10 Specification satisfying the required performance for highly ductile connections in seismic zones, thereby ensuring satisfactory performance under seismic actions without brittle failure mechanisms.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.1251-1264
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• 2016

After observing relatively poor performance of bolted web-welded flange beam-to-column connections during 1994 Northridge earthquake, various types of connections based on two concepts of: (i) strengthening the connection; and (ii) weakening the beam ends were proposed. Among these modified or newly proposed connections, bolted T-stub connection follows the concept of strengthening. One of the connections with the idea of weakening the beam ends is reduced beam section (RBS). In this paper, finite element simulation is used to study the cyclic behavior of a new proposed connection developed by using a combination of both mentioned concepts. Investigated connections are exterior beam-to-column connections designed to comply with AISC provisions. The results show that moment capacity and dissipated energy of the new proposed connection is almost the same as those computed for a T-stub connection and higher than corresponding values for an RBS connection.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.767-778
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a fully restrained bolted beam splice affects the connection behavior as a column-tree connection in steel special moment frames under cyclic loading when located within the plastic hinge zone. The impacts of this attachment in protected zone are observed by using nonlinear finite element analyses. This type of splice connection is designed as slip-critical connection and thereby, the possible effects of slippage of the bolts due to a possible loss of pretension in the bolts are also investigated. The 3D models with solid elements that have been developed includes three types of connections which are the connection having fully restrained beam splice located in the plastic hinge location, the connection having fully restrained beam splice located out of the plastic hinge and the connection without beam splice. All connection models satisfied the requirement for the special moment frame connections providing sufficient flexural resistance, determined at column face stated in AISC 341-16. In the connection model having fully restrained beam splice located in the plastic hinge, due to the pretension loss in the bolts, the friction force on the contact surfaces is exceeded, resulting in a relative slip. The reduction in the energy dissipation capacity of the connection is observed to be insignificant. The possibility of the crack occurrence around the bolt holes closest to the column face is found to be higher for the splice connection within the protected zone.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.507-518
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• 2013

The seismic performance of six types of weak-axis steel moment connections was investigated through cyclic testing of six full-scale specimens. These weak-axis moment connections were the column-tree type, WUF-B type, FF-W type, WFP type, BFP-B type and DST type weak-axis connections. The testing results showed that each of these weak-axis connection types achieved excellent seismic performance, except the WFP and the WUF-B types. The WFP and WUF-B connections displayed poor seismic performance because a fracture appeared prematurely at the weld joint due to stress concentrations. The column-tree type connection showed the best seismic behavior such that the story drift ratio could reach 5%.