2017 Annual Stability Conference Preview
Session S2 – Seismic Stability of Members and Systems Wednesday, March 22, 2017 9:45 am
Using Longitudinal Stiffeners to Mitigate Buckling of Noncompact and Slender Beam Webs in Ductile Moment Frame Connections
Typical beam sections used in metal buildings have noncompact or slender webs. It is often difficult, therefore, for these economically designed deep built-up members to meet highly ductile or moderately ductile web slenderness (h/tw) requirements in the AISC Seismic Provisions for use in special or intermediate moment resisting frame connections. A combined experimental and computational research program has been conducted to investigate a design strategy whereby longitudinal web stiffeners are used to break the web into panels which individually satisfy ductile slenderness requirements. Full-scale cyclic tests on three 1219 mm (48 in.) deep end plate moment connection subassemblage specimens demonstrate the effectiveness of this design strategy. A computational study using finite element models validated against the full-scale experiments is used to extend the applicability of the results. It is shown that moment connections with longitudinal stiffeners can develop substantial ductility and satisfy qualification requirements for special moment resisting frame connections even if the beam web outside the connection region is noncompact or slender.
Matthew R. Eatherton, Yujia Chen and Thomas M. Murray, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA; Karim Laknejadi, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
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