Stress concentration factors in tubular T/Y-connections reinforced with FRP under in-plane bending load

摘要

Stress concentration factors (SCFs) in steel tubular T/Y-connections strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) are investigated. In the first step, a finite element (FE) model was developed and verified using data of several available experimental tests and empirical formulas. After that, 134 FE models of T/Y-joints with and without FRP were created and analyzed under in-plane bending (IPB) load. In the FE models, the contact between the FRP layers and the members (chord, brace, and weld) was defined. Results showed that the increase of the FRP layer number leads to the notable decrease of the SCFs. Also, the SCFs of a T/Y-joint reinforced with FRP can be down to 40% of the SCF of the corresponding unreinforced joint. Finally, FE results were used to propose two parametric formulas for determining the SCFs in the T/Y-joints strengthened with FRP subjected to IPB load. The proposed formulas were checked according to the UK Department of Energy acceptance criteria.