Cyclic Testing of Welded Free Flange Type and Welded Flange Plate Type Weak-Axis Steel Moment Connections

Abstract

Moment resisting frames are most frequently used in seismic design systems for steel buildings. Following the Northridge and Kobe earthquakes there have been many studies examining the strong axis steel moment connections. In particular, these efforts have been supported by the government in the US. In Korea on the other hand, researches on the seismic behaviours of weak-axis moment connections are difficult to fine even though these connection details have been frequently used as seismic details of local MRF. As a result, the objective of this research is to provide information on the seismic behaviours of welded free flange type(FF) and welded flange plate type(WFP) weak-axis steel moment connections that were quoted by the FEMA. For this purpose, an experimental program was designed and performed with 2 types of weak-axis steel moment connections. From the test results, both FF and WFP type connections revealed to have more than 3% story drift capacity, which satisfy the required performance for OMF systems.