Large-Scale Testing of Steel Portal Frames Comprising Tapered Beams and Columns

Abstract

Advanced analysis and design of steel frames can directly and exactly determine the ultimate system capacity without resort to simplified elastic methods of analysis and semi-empirical interaction equations (Chen, 1993). However, the application of advanced analysis methods has previously been based on steel frames comprising prismatic members. A research project has been conducted with the aim of developing concentrated plasticity methods suitable for practical advanced analysis and reliability-based design of steel portal frames with tapered members (Li, 2001). Two large-scale realistic tests were performed in order to provide experimental results for verification of the new analytical models, and to examine the important nonlinear effects that should be added in further theoretical research. Tested frames are identical in dimensions and with tapered beams and columns. One was subjected to incremental vertical loads and the other to simultaneous constant vertical loads and incremental horizontal loads. The details of the test program including the test frames, test rig and instrumentation, test procedure and results are given in this paper. Comparisons between design and analytical results are presented and discussed.