Isolated Shear Endplate and Double Angle Connections: Prediction of Strength Capacity: Fid-Bau Portal

Isolated Shear Endplate and Double Angle Connections: Prediction of Strength Capacity

Hantouche, Elie G. / Sleiman, Sarah A.

This paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing analytical study on the behavior of steel shear connections subjected to fire. Fire safety in building design has become a recent concern for researchers in the past few years. Steel beam-end connections affect significantly the overall performance of structures at elevated temperatures. Several experimental studies have been conducted on full scale beam-column assemblies; however, many aspects of the structural behavior and failure mechanisms that govern the behavior of steel beam-end connections at elevated temperatures are still not well characterized. The preliminary analytical program consists first of a series of finite element (FE) simulations of steel shear endplate and double angle connections that are conducted to better understand the behavior of end-plate and double angle connections at elevated temperatures. Second, the FE models are validated against experimental results of shear endplate and double angle connections at ambient and elevated temperature available in the literature. A comparison is also made between the capacity predictions of the two connections at ambient and elevated temperature. The FE models are capable of predicting the behavior of double angle and shear endplate connections under varied loading conditions and elevated temperatures. The results show that rotational ductility and capacity of the double angle at ambient and elevated temperature are both larger than that of the shear endplate connection.