RELIABILITY OF MOMENT RESISTING BEAM COLUMN BOLTED CONNECTIONS

摘要

Connections are more complex than members to analyse and discrepancy between analysis and actual behaviour is large. Further, in case of overloading, we prefer failure confined to an individual member rather than in a connection, which could affect many members. Connections account for more than half the cost of structural steelwork and so their design and detailing are of primary importance for the economy of the structure. A structure is only as strong as its weakest link. Unless properly designed, the connections joining the members may be weaker than the members being joined. Thus designing for adequacy in strength, stiffness and ductility of connections ensure deflection control during service load and larger deflection and ductile failure under over load. Hence, a good understanding of the behaviour and design of joints or connections in steel structures is an important pre-requisite for any good design engineer. This study presents the study of reliability of moment resisting bolted beam column connections. Flush end plate type connections were designed, fabricated and tested. Behaviour and failure pattern of different components of a connection like bolt, flush end plate, column member, beam member and stiffeners have been studied both analytically and experimentally.