Salas, Constanza

Experimental Performance of Double Built-Up T Moment Connections

Abstract eng:
The brittle failures detected during the 1994 Northridge earthquake on steel moment-frame buildings prompted significant investigations on steel moment connections. This work resulted in the proposal of several prequalified connections, including the Double Split Tee (DST) connection, to be used in beam-to-column moment joints of seismic resistant steel buildings. The DST connection is a partially restrained-full strength connection, which consists of two T-stubs bolted to the column flange and the beam top and bottom flanges. The prequalification process was conducted using hot-rolled shapes, whose availability is still limited in Chile and other countries. In addition, the range of usable T web and flange thicknesses is narrow for these shapes. These reasons led to study the use of built-up T-stubs as an alternative on the DST connection, considering that they offer a larger freedom of sizing and improved material utilization. This experimental research aims to validate the use of current design recommendations for the DST connection when built-up T shapes are used instead, by testing three beam-to-column full-scale welded T moment connections under cyclic loading. The parameter varied between the specimens was the T flange thickness, in order to observe the most significant limit states of the connection. The experimental data allowed the identification of the failure modes of the beam and connection, which were the development of plastic hinges and T flange prying effect, respectively. The results indicate that the major contributors to energy dissipation in the connection were the T flange prying and plastic hinging mechanisms, as predicted, and that the three Beam-to-Column connections accomplish the requirements for use in Special Moment Frames, in terms of acceptable strength degradation at a story drift angle of 0.04 rad, with no visible damage on the T-stubs’ welds.

Contributors:

Herrera, Ricardo

Conference Title:

Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Title:

16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Venue:

Santiago (CL)

Conference Dates:

2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13

Rights:

Text je chráněný podle autorského zákona č. 121/2000 Sb.