• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.441-458
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• 2001

We analyzed the experimental and theoretical behavior of a particular type of steel joint designed to connect beam to beam and able to transfer both shear forces and bending moments. This joint is characterized by the use of steel plates and bolts enclosed in the width of the beams. The experimental investigation was carried out characterizing the constituent materials and testing in flexure beams constituted by two portions of beams connected in the middle with the joint proposed. Connections having different characteristics in terms of thickness of plates, number and type of bolts were utilized. Flexure tests allow one to determine the loaddeflection curves of the beam tested and the moment-rotation diagrams of the connections, highlighting the strength and the strain capacity of the joints. The proposed analytical model allows one to determine the moment-rotation relationship of the connections, pointing out the influence of the principal geometrical and mechanic characteristics of single constituents on the full properties of the joint.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.545-560
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• 2010

Two or more distinct materials are combined into a single functionally graded material (FGM) where the microstructural composition and properties change gradually. Thermal post-buckling behavior of uniform slender FGM beams is investigated independently using the classical Rayleigh-Ritz (RR) formulation and the versatile Finite Element Analysis (FEA) formulation developed in this paper. The von-Karman strain-displacement relations are used to account for moderately large deflections of FGM beams. Bending-extension coupling arising due to heterogeneity of material through the thickness is included. Simply supported and clamped beams with axially immovable ends are considered in the present study. Post-buckling load versus deflection curves and buckled mode shapes obtained from both the RR and FEA formulations for different volume fraction exponents show an excellent agreement with the available literature results for simply supported ends. Response of the FGM beam with clamped ends is studied for the first time and the results from both the RR and FEA formulations show a very good agreement. Though the response of the FGM beam could have been studied more accurately by FEA formulation alone, the authors aim to apply the RR formulation is to find an approximate closed form post-buckling solutions for the FGM beams. Further, the use of the RR formulation clearly demonstrates the effect of bending-extension coupling on the post-buckling response of the FGM beams.