Seismic Performance of Steel Side Plate Moment Connections

Abstract eng:
Moment connections in a 34-story steel building located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan were rehabilitated to satisfy seismic requirements based on the 2005 AISC seismic provisions. Construction of the building was ceased in 1996 due to financial difficulties and was recommenced in 2007 with enhanced connection performance. Steel moment connections in the existing building were constructed by groove welding the beam flanges and bolting the beam web to the column. Four moment connections, two of which were removed from the existing 34-story steel building, were cyclically tested. A non-rehabilitated moment connection with bolted web-welded flanges was tested as a benchmark. Three moment connections rehabilitated by welding full-depth side plates between the column face and beam flange inner side were tested to validate the cyclic performance. Test results revealed that (1) the non-rehabilitated moment connection failed at an interstory drift of 3%, (2) all rehabilitated moment connections exhibited excellent performance, exceeding a 4% drift without fractures of beam flange groove-welded joints, and (3) two rehabilitated moment connections could be successfully tested twice with minor strength degradation. The connection specimens were also modeled using the non-linear finite element computer program ABAQUS to further confirm the effectiveness of the side plate in transferring beam moments to the column and to investigate potential sources of connection failure. A design procedure was proposed based on the experimental and analytical studies.

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