Analysis On Mechanical Behavior Of Beam-to-column End-plate Connections With Reduced Beam Section

Beam-to-column connections play a great significant role in aseismic capacity ofsteel frame structure. During the1994Northridge earthquake and1995Kobe earthquake,a large number of beam-to-column joints appeared different degrees of damage. Therefore,semi-rigid and improved rigid joints become popular engineering practice and researchissues. Extended end-plate connections has a good seismic behavior,but the fracture ofwelding between beam flange and end-plate, tensile failure of the high-strength bolt andbending shear failure of end-plate are the disadvantages to seismic structure. Thus, theauthor combine it with the idea of reduced beam section and advance a new connectionnamed beam-to-column end-plate connections with reduced beam section. ApplyingANSYS FE the paper further analyzed the monotonic and hysteretic behavior of this newconnection, and compared with traditional end-plate connections.Firstly, the effects of reduced beam section parameters on the connection capacity,elastic stiffness and plastic hinge development were investigated. Stress changes of end-plate, high-strength bolt and different stress paths were analyzed, and compared withtraditional end-plate connections. The results show that: the reasonable reduced beamsection parameters can move plastic hinge to reduced zone, protecting the weaknesses ofend-plate connections and make the ductility and seismic behavior of steel structure morereliable.Secondly, the effects of factors such as end-plate thickness, bolt quantity, panel zonestrength and reduced beam section parameters on the hysteretic behavior wereinvestigated, and compared with traditional end-plate connections. The results show that:the influence of end-plate thickness, panel zone strength and reduced depth on hysteretic behavior are very obvious, the reasonable reduced beam section parameters makeshysteretic curve of end-plate full and stable, the energy dissipation coefficient improvedsignificantly.In conclusion, the seismic behavior of the proposed connection is superior to that oftraditional beam-to-column end-plate connections, and appropriate selection of reducedbeam section parameters can effectively improve the seismic behavior of beam-to-columnend-plate connections.