Studies On The Rigidity Of Rotation For Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) Structure Joints

As structure members, Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) structure has its special advantages of beautiful surface, less corrosion protection consuming, good working property when subject to flexural, torsion and compression, and simple details, which facilitate its construction and reduce the total construction cost. Therefore, it is becoming more and more popular in China and abroad within the Civil Engineering field. The rigidity of rotation of joints has great influence on the load distribution and deformation property of RHS structures. However less effort has been spent in studying in this field. For the calculation of the rigidity of rotation for RHS joints, stipulation is still blank in related Codes.Using a Non-linear Finite-element method software (ANSYS6. 1), this paper applied a numerical analysis on the rigidity of rotation of Y and K-shape RHS structure joints subject to in-plane bending, and worked out the parameters which play an important role in the specification of the rigidity of rotation of RHS joints, then by using the regression analysis method, this paper worked out a group of equations for the calculation of the rigidity of rotation of Y and K-shape RHS structure joints subject to in-plane bending.