STUDY ON TENSILE BEARING BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED GUSSET PLATE CONNECTIONS TO SLOTTED TUBES

摘要

A number of studies on gusset plate connections to slotted tubes have been carried out in the last few years, however, it mainly focuses on those connections which are not reinforced. So, in order to study the tensile bearing behavior of reinforced gusset plate connections to slotted tubes, the experimental study and simulation by ANSYS were conducted to a total of six specimens of gusset plate connections to slotted tubes, in which two were not reinforced, two were reinforced by weld hollow sphere and the other two were reinforced by plates. Test results showed that the failure modes of all these specimens were tensile failure occurred in the tube where the gusset plate entered it, and a clear necking had taken place before failure in the tube of specimens GPT-3 and GPT-6 which were reinforced by plates. A good agreement is observed between the results of test and FEA. The study indicates that the phenomenon of shear-lag is rather serious in the process of tensile loading and the quality of welds at the slotted end has great impact on the ultimate tensile bearing capacity of gusset plate connections to slotted tubes. In addition, the tensile bearing capacity of reinforced gusset plate connections to slotted tubes is higher than the relevant connections which are not reinforced, but the increasement of connections reinforced by plates is more remarkable.