Experimental Study on Fracture Behavior of Beam-to-column Connection

Abstract

In the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake, brittle fracture of beam flange in the vicinity of beam-to-column connections were widely observed.To investigate this phenomenon, a series of tests on beam-to-column connections were carried out with regard to mechanical properties of beam materials(low toughness hot-rolled H-section vs high toughness hot-rolled H-section) and geometrical condition of the welded joints.The obtained results are as followings:(1)There was no remarkable difference on the deformation capacity between specimens using low toughness hotrolled H-section and specimens using high toughness one.It was considered to be attributed to low yield-ratio of beam flange and stress intensity ratio of beam and diaphragm.(2)The shape of the weld access hole and fillet weld of backing strip have an important influence upon the fracture behavior especially in the case of low fracture toughness of the hot-rolled H-section.