• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.343-356
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• 2016

As the common cast-in-place construction works fails to meet the enormous construction demand under rapid economic growth, the development of prefabricated structure instead becomes increasingly promising in China. For the prefabricated structure, its load carrying connection joint play a key role in maintaining the structural integrity. Therefore, a novel end plate bolt connecting joint between fully prefabricated pre-stressed concrete beam and high-strength reinforcement-confined concrete column was proposed. Under action of low cycle repeated horizontal loadings, comparative tests are conducted on 6 prefabricated pre-stressed intermediate joint specimens and 1 cast-in-place joint specimen to obtain the specimen failure modes, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, ductility factor, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation capacity and other seismic indicators, and the seismic characteristics of the new-type prefabricated beam-column connecting joint are determined. The test results show that all the specimens for end plate bolt connecting joint between fully prefabricated pre-stressed concrete beam and high-strength reinforcement-confined concrete column have realized the design objectives of strong column weak beam. The hysteretic curves for specimens are good, indicating desirable ductility and energy dissipation capacity and seismic performances, and the research results provide theoretical basis and technical support for the promotion and application of prefabricated assembly frames in the earthquake zone.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.409-420
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• 2017

This paper theoretically studies the cyclic behavior of hybrid connections between steel coupling beams and concrete shear walls with embedded steel columns. Finite element models of connections with long and short embedded steel columns are built in ABAQUS and validated against the test results in the companion paper. Parametric studies are carried out using the validated FE model to determine the key influencing factors on the load-bearing capacity of connections. A close-form solution of the load-bearing capacity of connections is proposed by considering the contributions from the compressive strength of concrete at the interface between the embedded beam and concrete, shear yielding of column web in the tensile region, and shear capacity of column web and concrete in joint zone. The results show that the bond slip between embedded steel members and concrete should be considered which can be simulated by defining contact boundary conditions. It is found that the loadbearing capacity of connections strongly depends on the section height, flange width and web thickness of the embedded column. The accuracy of the proposed calculation method is validated against test results and also verified against FE results (with differences within 10%). It is recommended that embedded steel columns should be placed along the entire height of shear walls to facilitate construction and enhance the ductility. The thickness and section height of embedded columns should be increased to enhance the load-bearing capacity of connections. The stirrups in the joint zone should be strengthened and embedded columns with very small section height should be avoided.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제18권5호
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• pp.1177-1195
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• 2015

Six specimens are tested to investigate the cyclic behavior of beam-to-column abnormal joints in steel moment-resisting frames, which are designed according to the principle of strong-member and weak-panel zone. Key parameters include the axial compression ratio of column and the section depth ratio of beams. Experimental results indicate that four types of failure patterns occurred during the loading process. The $P-{\Delta}$ hysteretic loops are stable and plentiful, but have different changing tendency at the positive and negative direction in the later of loading process due to mechanical behaviors of specimens. The ultimate strength tends to increase with the decrease of the section depth ratio of beams, but it is not apparent relationship to the axial compression ratio of column, which is less than 0.5. The top panel zone has good deformation capacity and the shear rotation can reach to 0.04 rad. The top panel zone and the bottom panel zone don't work as a whole. Based on the experimental results, the equation for shear strength of the abnormal joint panel zone is established by considering the restriction of the bottom panel zone to the top panel zone, which is suitable for the abnormal joint of H-shaped or box column and beams with different depths.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.487-500
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• 2016

In order to investigate the flexural bearing capacity of panel zone of diaphragm-through joint between concrete filled square steel tubular column and steel beam, four specimens were tested under static tension loads to study the mechanical properties and bearing capacity of diaphragm-through joints with a failure mode of panel zone. Finite element models of these specimens were developed to simulate the test and compare the predicted failure modes, load-displacement curves and bearing capacities with the experimentally observed. It was found that the tensile load from the steel beam flange is mainly shared by the square steel tube and the diaphragm. The diaphragm plastic zone appears along the cross-section lines enclosed by the square steel tube and the influence of steel beam web on the plastic zone of the steel tube is significant and cannot be neglected. Computational models of yield lines on square steel tube and diaphragm are established based on the distribution pattern of the plastic zone, and an analytical method for the evaluation of the bearing capacity of the joint is proposed. The theoretical results and the experimental data are compared and found in good agreement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제42권2호
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• pp.161-172
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• 2022

In this paper, four specimens of CFST column joints with endplates and long bolts are tested in the scenario of progressive collapse. Flush endplate and extended endplate are both adopted in this study. The experimental results show that increasing the thickness of the endplate could improve the behavior of the joint, but delay the mobilization of catenary action. The thickness of the endplate should not be relatively thick in comparison to the diameter of the bolts, otherwise catenary action would not be mobilized or work effectively. Effective bending deformation of the endplate could help the formation and development of catenary action in the joints. The performance of flexural action in the joint would affect the formation of catenary action in the joint. Extra middle-row bolts set at the endplates and structural components set below the bottom beam flange should be used to enhance the robustness of joints. A special weld access hole between beam and endplate should be adopted to mitigate the chain damage potential of welds. It is suggested that the structural components of joints should be independent of each other to enhance the robustness of joints. Based on the component method, a formula calculating the stiffness coefficient of preloaded long bolts was proposed whose results matched well with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제42권6호
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• pp.791-804
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• 2022

As a type of semi-rigid connection, the top and seat angle connections are popular in current structures owing to their good cyclic performance and simple erection. However, their stiffness and load bearing capacity are relatively insufficient. This study proposes two strengthening methods to further increase the stiffness and strength of bolted-angle joints while maintaining satisfactory energy dissipation capacity (EDC) and ductility. Cyclic loading tests were conducted on six joint specimens with different strengthened angle components. Based on the test results, the influence of the following important factors on the cyclic behavior of steel joint specimens was investigated: the position of the rib stiffeners (edge rib stiffeners and middle rib stiffener), steel strength grade of rib stiffeners (Q345 and Q690), and additional stiffeners or not. In addition, the finite element models of these specimens were built and validated through a comparison of experimental and numerical results. The stiffness and bearing capacity of the bolted-angle joints could be improved significantly by utilizing the novel strengthened joints proposed in this study. Moreover, this can be achieved with almost no increase in the amount of steel required, and the EDC of this joint could also satisfy the requirements of seismic codes from various countries.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제86권3호
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• pp.417-430
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• 2023

As the key part in the reinforced concrete column-steel beam (RCS) frame, the beam-column joints are usually subjected the axial force, shear force and bending moment under seismic actions. With the aim to study the seismic behavior of RCS joints with and without RC slab, the quasi-static cyclic tests results, including hysteretic curves, slab crack development, failure mode, strain distributions, etc. were discussed in detail. It is shown that the composite action between steel beam and RC slab can significantly enhance the initial stiffness and loading capacity, but lead to a changing of the failure mode from beam flexural failure to the joint shear failure. Based on the analysis of shear failure mechanism, the calculation formula accounting for the influence of RC slab was proposed to estimate shear strength of RCS joint. In addition, the finite element model (FEM) was developed by ABAQUS and a series of parametric analysis model with RC slab was conducted to investigate the influence of the face plates thickness, slab reinforcement diameter, beam web strength and inner concrete strength on the shear strength of joints. Finally, the proposed formula in this paper is verified by the experiment and FEM parametric analysis results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제18권6호
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• pp.1391-1404
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• 2015

A radially retractable roof structure based on the concept of the hybrid grid shell is proposed in this paper. The single-layer steel trusses of the radially foldable bar structure are diagonally stiffened by cables, which leads to a single-layer lattice shell with triangular mesh. Then comparison between the static behavior between the retractable hybrid grid shell and the corresponding foldable bar shell with quadrangular mesh is discussed. Moreover, the effects of different structural parameters, such as the rise-to-span ratio, the bar cross section area and the pre-stress of the cables, on the structural behaviors are investigated. The results show that prestressed cables can strengthen the foldable bar shell with quadrangular mesh. Higher structural stiffness is anticipated by introducing cables into the hybrid system. When the rise-span ratio is equal to 0.2, where the joint displacement reaches the minimal value, the structure shape of the hyrbid grid shell approaches the reasonable arch axis. The increase of the section of steel bars contributes a lot to the integrity stiffness of the structure. Increasing cable sections would enhance the structure stiffness, but it contributes little to axial forces in structural members. And the level of cable prestress has slight influence on the joint displacements and member forces.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.399-408
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• 2017

This paper experimentally studies the cyclic behavior of hybrid connections between steel coupling beams and concrete shear walls with embedded steel columns. Four beam-to-wall connection specimens with short and long embedded steel columns are tested under monotonic and cyclic loads, respectively. The influence of embedment length of columns on the failure mode and performance of connections is investigated. The results show that the length of embedded steel columns has significant effect on the failure mode of connections. A connection with a long embedded column has a better stiffness, load-bearing capacity and ductility than that of a short embedded column. The former fails due to the shear yielding of column web in the joint panel, while failure of the latter is initiated by the yielding of horizontal reinforcement in the wall due to the rigid rotation of the column. It is recommended that embedded steel columns should be placed along the entire height of shear walls to facilitate construction and enhance the ductility.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.303-317
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• 2019

This paper presents a finite element model for predicting the behaviour of high-strength steel bolted beam-to-column joints under monotonic loading. The developed numerical model considers the effects of material nonlinearities and geometric nonlinearities. The accuracy of the developed model is examined by comparing the predicted results with independent experimental results. It is demonstrated that the proposed model accurately predicts the ultimate flexural resistances and moment-rotation curves for high-strength steel bolted beam-to-column joints. Mechanical performance of three joint configurations with various design details is examined. A parametric study is carried out to investigate the effects of key design parameters on the behaviour of bolted beam-to-column joints with double-extended endplates. The plastic flexural capacities of the beam-to-column joints from the experimental programme and numerical analysis are compared with the current codes of practice. It is found that the initial stiffness and plastic flexural resistance of the high-strength steel beam-to-column joints are overestimated. Proper modifications need to be conducted to ensure the current analytical method can be safely used for the bolted beam-to-column joints with high-performance materials.