Elasto-Plastic Nonlinear Analysis of Flexibly-Jointed Space Frames

摘要

A method for the nonlinear analysis of space frames incorporating the effect offlexible or semi-rigid joints is presented. A two-node zero length connection element with three rotational degrees of freedom per node is used to model the joint. The connection element may be introduced at one or both ends of a general thin-walled beam-column element via kinematic transformation and static condensation. The proposed connection element may be represented by any set of nonlinear coupled or uncoupled in-plane, out-of-plane and torsional moment-rotation relationships. Several numerical examples are presented which show that the response of a flexibly-jointed frame is very sensitive to joint behavior.