Analytical Study on Dynamic Behaviour of Bolted Beam Column Steel Connections with Reduced Beam Sections

Abstract

Recent earthquakes highlighted that, conventional steel moment frame (SMF) shows brittle failure due to the seismic actions. Greater damages are due to the stress concentration at the interface of beam and column. A number of improved beam to column connection design strategies have been proposed. Reduced beam section (RBS) connection was introduced as a safety approach to reduce stress concentration at the panel zone. RBS promote the formation of plastic hinges within the reduced beam section of the beam at a specific distance from column face. The finite element analysis of steel beam-column connection arrangement was carried out for studying the strength behavior of beam column joint. In this paper cyclic analysis of bolted steel beam-column connections with RBS were using finite element analysis software ANSYS 16.1. The cyclic behavior of bolted beam column joints with and without RBS techniques are investigated. Cyclic behavior of variable configuration of reduced beam sections was also examined. From the analysis, it is observed that the specimen with RBS dissipates more energy than the conventional moment connection. Connection region remained in the elastic area due to plastic hinge formation in the RBS zone. The applied RBS geometry protects the connection and its components (endplate, column flange, bolts, welds) from failure. To investigate the effectiveness of RBS in inclined beams, 3D finite analysis is performed on the frame with a slope of 10°, 20°, 30° from the orthogonal.