Loading system for full-scale heavy-duty support node test with multi-directional loading requirements

Abstract

This paper presents the design, analysis and experimental study of a loading system for heavy-duty nodes test based on a large-scale multi-directional in-plane loading device, which has been used in a full-scale heavy-duty support node test. Test loads of the support reached 6 567 kN with multi-directional loading requirements, which outrange the capacity of the available loading devices. Through the reinforcement of a large-scale multi-directional in-plane loading device, the innovative design of a self-balanced load transferring device, and other arrangement considerations of the loading system, the test was implemented and the loading capacity of the ring was considerably enlarged. Due to the heavy loading requirements, some checking computations of the ring and the load transferring device outranged the limit of the Chinese national code “Code for Design of Steel Structures (GB 50017—2003)”, thus elastic-plastic finite element (FE) analysis was carried out on the two devices, and also the real-time monitoring on the whole loading systems during experiments to ensure test safety. FE analysis and test results show that the loading system worked elastically during experiments.