Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of a New Reduced Beam Section Connection without Flange Tapering

Chaghazardi, Shayesteh; TahamouliRoudsari, Mehrzad; Oghabi, Mohsen; Movahednia, Mehrdad

doi:10.22065/jsce.2023.394078.3097

Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of a New Reduced Beam Section Connection without Flange Tapering

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Shayesteh Chaghazardi ¹

Mehrzad TahamouliRoudsari ²

Mohsen Oghabi ³

Mehrdad Movahednia ⁴

¹ Ph.D. Student in Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

² 2- Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

³ 3- Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Kermanshah Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kermanshah, Iran

⁴ 4- Department of Civil Engineering, Eslamabad-E-Gharb Branch, Islamic Azad University, Eslamabad-E-Gharb, Iran.

10.22065/jsce.2023.394078.3097

Abstract

Reduced Beam Sections (RBS) provide ductility for rigid connections in steel moment frames by reducing the load imposed on the panel zone and driving the location of the plastic hinge away from the column. Despite these advantages, RBSs are accompanied by a number of drawbacks, among which are the impracticality of some of the proposed models, early local buckling in the beam’s flange/web, and lateral torsional buckling brought on by the transverse reduction in the flange’s width. The objective of the present study is proposing a new RBS detail that has the minimum number of these weaknesses, while benefitting from the advantages of reduced sections. In the first step, a number of numerical models were constructed inside the ABAQUS finite element software. After analyzing the models using pushover analyses and interpreting the results, three beam models were selected. One of these models was an AISC-approved RBS model, which was used as the basis of comparison to evaluate the performance of the proposed specimens. In the three models proposed, the reduction was in the form of decreasing the thickness of the beam’s flange. In one of the models, thickness reduction in the flange was done by creating shallow grooves. In the remaining sample, a rectangular area on the surface of the flange was shaved off to create the reduced section. The plastic section moduli of the proposed samples are equal to the thinnest section of the RBS specimen. The experimental RBS samples were full-scale, and tested under cyclic loading. The results of all of the samples showed that plastic hinge was created in the expected region. The seismic criteria for the special moment connection were satisfied by all of the proposed samples. The sample with the shaved flange was superior to the RBS specimen in terms of ductility and energy dissipation.

Keywords

RBS connection

Grooved flange beam

Shaved flange beam

Lateral torsional buckling

Ductility

Local buckling

Subjects

Structural and Earthquake Engineering

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