• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.31-37
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• 2002

Recently a simplified design procedure as well as load transfer model for seismic steel moment connections with welded straight haunch have been proposed by Lee and Uang. Cyclic seismic testing was conducted to verify the proposed design procedure and to develop the details that will prevent the cracking at the haunch tip, where stress concentration was the highest. All the specimens thus designed effectively pushed plastic hinging away from the haunch tip and were able to develop satisfactory plastic rotation capacity of 0.04 radian with no fracture. A sloped edge combined with drilling a hole near the haunch tip or a pair of stiffeners(partially or fully) extended from the beam web successfully prevented the crack initiation at the haunch tip. The strut action of the haunch web, which had been predicted from the previous analytical study, was also experimentally identified through the strain gage readings.