Behavior of the damage-tolerant beam-column connection for earthquake-resilient steel frame: Experimental and numerical study

Abstract

Achievement of damage concentration is key to realizing structural resilience. In this study, a replaceable damage-tolerant beam-column connection is developed and the mechanical behavior was studied through experimental study. Results demonstrated that the proposed connection achieved damage concentration within the connecting region, and the failure mode and hysteresis behavior obtained by finite element modeling matched well with the test results. Then subsequent numerical study based on the validated detailed finite element model was carried out to investigate the influence of the width and thickness of the sliding plate, the length of slotted holes, the slip coefficient and the bolt load on the seismic behavior. The parametric study results demonstrated that the length of slotted holes significantly influenced the load-deformation characteristics while the width and thickness of sliding plates affected the bearing capacity once the bearing behavior occurred. A longer slotted hole could improve the ductility and energy dissipation capacity since it delayed the local buckling behavior of the flange segment. The bending moment was enhanced with the activation of bearing action and it was mainly affected by the width of the sliding plate. The increase of the friction coefficient and bolt pretension was beneficial to the energy dissipation behavior, while it did not influence the bearing behavior a lot.