Seismic Connection for Steel Square Hollow Beam-To-Square Hollow Column Joint

Abstract

Most of the steel structures in India are made of conventional steel sections (such as angle, channel and beam sections). However, new hollow steel sections (such as square and rectangular hollow sections) are gaining popularity in recent steel constructions due to a number of advantages such as its higher strength to weight ratio, better fire resistance properties, higher radius of gyration, lesser surface area, etc. This type of hollow sections can save cost up to 30 to 50% over the conventional steel sections (Tata Steel brochure, 2012). But unlike the conventional steel sections these hollow sections do not have standard connection details available in design code or in published literature. To overcome this problem the objective of the present study was identified to develop a suitable and economic connection detail between two square hollow sections which should be capable of transmitting forces smoothly and easy to be fabricated. To achieve the above objective, a square hollow beam to square hollow column connection was selected and modelled in commercial finite element software ABAQUS. This model was analysed for nonlinear static (pushover) analysis considering a number of connection details. Following four alternative scheme of connection details were selected for this study: (i) using end-plate, (ii) using angle section, (iii) using channel sections, and (iv) using collar plates. The base model (rectangular hollow beam welded to one face of the rectangular hollow column) is also studied for reference. The performance of the selected connection details are compared and the best performing connection details is recommended for rectangular hollow beam-to- rectangular hollow column joints. The result shows that the load carrying capacity of the joint and the maximum deformation capacity is highly sensitive to the type of connection used. Also, the location of formation of plastic hinges in the structure depends highly on the type of connection used