A Study on the Design of Semi - rigid Frames with Beam - to - Column Connections Reinforced by Increasing Thickness of Columns.

Abstract

New concept of connection between steel beams and cold-formed square tube column is proposed. To investigate beam-to-column connections reinforced by increasing thickness of column, beam-to-column sub-assemblage tests were carried out under cyclic loadings.Test results show that the connection can absorb sufficient seismic energy and that the yield strengths predicted by yield line theory agree well with experimentals. Parametric study using FE method has been carried out. The result shows that the width of beam flange and thickness of reinforced part of column have great influence on yield strength and that reinforcing length can be decided by yield line theory. In addition, empirical formulae to estimate rotational rigidity of connection was obtained.