Comparative Study Among The Different Types Of Connections In Steel Building Frames

'Steel is one of the most important construction materials today. Its application continues to grow and to diversify, where before buildings were of bricks and mortar today ferroconcrete is the material of choice. In other countries steel-frame buildings are preferred although more expensive, steel-frame buildings are faster to build. A steel industry used to be regarded as the measure of a country's level of development. The more sophisticated the steel industry of a nation, the higher is its level of industrialization. Excerpts of our Prime Minister, YAB. Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad opening address at the Official Opening of the Malaysian Structural Steel Association Convention 2000. This clearly shows that the steel construction has it's very bright future in this country. Tl1e steel consumption is no longer an issue within engineering or steel industry, but it symbolises the level of industrialisation of a country. Our government has stressed the importance of using modem construction practice towards achieving high quality structure. So with all these in mind, steel structures can provide a better choice for the construction industry present needs. Therefore a better understanding of steel structural performance is vital, in order to achieve an optimum and cost balance design. This project is carried out to determine the effect of the choice of the connection types on members' sizes and the economical aspect in the design of a steel structure. STAAD-III analysis and design software is being used to analyse and design for the structure. A release factor, f1 is being introduced for partial moment release use to represent semi-rigid connection behaviour. From this study, it can be concluded that semi-rigid connections achieve the most optimum design in terms of beam section and cost.

This book is the Proceedings of a State-of-the-Art Workshop on Connenctions and the Behaviour, Strength and Design of Steel Structures held at Laboratoire de Mecanique et Technologie, Ecole Normale, Cachan France from 25th to 27th May 1987. It contains the papers presented at the above proceedings and is split into eight main sections covering: Local Analysis of Joints, Mathematical Models, Classification, Frame Analysis, Frame Stability and Simplified Methods, Design Requirements, Data Base Organisation, Research and Development Needs. With papers from 50 international contributors this text will provide essential reading for all those involved with steel structures.

The book introduces all the aspects needed for the safe and economic design and analysis of connections using bolted joints in steel structures. This is not treated according to any specific standard but making comparison among the different norms and methodologies used in the engineering practice, e.g. Eurocode, AISC, DIN, BS. Several examples are solved and illustrated in detail, giving the reader all the tools necessary to tackle also complex connection design problems. The book is introductory but also very helpful to advanced and specialist audiences because it covers a large variety of practice demands for connection design. Parts that are not taken to an advanced level are seismic design, welds, interaction with other materials (concrete, wood), and cold formed connections./p

This book publishes the proceedings from the Third International Workshop on Connections in Steel Structures: Behaviour, Strength and Design held in Trento, Italy, 29-31 May 1995. The workshop brought together the world's foremost experts in steel connections research, development, fabrication and design. The scope of the papers reflects state-of-the-art issues in all areas of endeavour, and manages to bring together the needs of researchers as well as designers and fabricators. Topics of particular importance include connections for composite (steel-concrete) structures, evaluation methods and reliability issues for semi-rigid connections and frames, and the impact of extreme loading events such as those imposed by major earthquakes. The book highlights novel methods and applications in the field and ensures that designers and other members of the construction industry gain access to the new results and procedures.

Surveys the leading methods for connecting structural steel components, covering state-of-the-art techniques and materials, and includes new information on welding and connections. Hundreds of detailed examples, photographs, and illustrations are found throughout this handbook. --from publisher description.

This report, FEMA-350 - Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings has been developed by the SAC Joint Venture under contract to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide organizations engaged in the development of consensus design standards and building code provisions with recommended criteria for the design and construction of new buildings incorporating moment-resisting steel frame construction to resist the effects of earthquakes. It is one of a series of companion publications addressing the issue of the seismic performance of steel moment-frame buildings. The set of companion publications includes: FEMA-350 - Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings. This publication provides recommended criteria, supplemental to FEMA-302 - 1997 NEHRP Recommended Provisions for Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures, for the design and construction of steel moment-frame buildings and provides alternative performance-based design criteria. FEMA-351 - Recommended Seismic Evaluation and Upgrade Criteria for Existing Welded Steel Moment-Frame Buildings. This publication provides recommended methods to evaluate the probable performance of existing steel moment-frame buildings in future earthquakes and to retrofit these buildings for improved performance. FEMA-352 - Recommended Postearthquake Evaluation and Repair Criteria for Welded Steel Moment-Frame Buildings. This publication provides recommendations for performing postearthquake inspections to detect damage in steel moment-frame buildings following an earthquake, evaluating the damaged buildings to determine their safety in the postearthquake environment, and repairing damaged buildings. FEMA-353 - Recommended Specifications and Quality Assurance Guidelines for Steel Moment-Frame Construction for Seismic Applications. This publication provides recommended specifications for the fabrication and erection of steel moment frames for seismic applications. The recommended design criteria contained in the other companion documents are based on the material and workmanship standards contained in this document, which also includes discussion of the basis for the quality control and quality assurance criteria contained in the recommended specifications. The information contained in these recommended design criteria, hereinafter referred to as Recommended Criteria, is presented in the form of specific design and performance evaluation procedures together with supporting commentary explaining part of the basis for these recommendations.

An unexpected brittle failure of connections and of members occurred during the last earthquakes of Northridge and Kobe. For this reason a heightened awareness developed in the international scientific community, particularly in the earthquake prone countries of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe, of the urgent need to investigate this topic. The contents of this volume result from a European project dealing with the 'Reliability of moment resistant connections of steel frames in seismic areas' (RECOS), developed between 1997 and 1999 within the INCO-Copernicus joint research projects of the 4th Framework Program. The 30 month project focused on five key areas: *Analysis and syntheses of research results, including code provisos, in relation with the evidence of the Northridge and Kobe earthquakes; *Identification and evaluation through experimental means of the structural performance of beam-to-column connections under cyclic loading; *Setting up of sophisticated models for interpreting the connection response; *Numerical study on the connection influence on the seismic response of steel buildings; *Assessment of new criteria for selecting the behaviour factor for different structural schemes and definition of the corresponding range of validity in relation of the connection typologies.

This dissertation presents the results of experimental and computational investigations on the behavior of steel simple beam end framing connections subjected to fire. While significant progress has been made in understanding the overall structural response of steel buildings subject to fire, the behavior of connections under fire conditions is not well understood. Connections are critical elements for maintaining the integrity of a structure during a fire. Fire can cause large force and deformation demands on connections during both the heating and cooling stages, while reducing connection strength and stiffness. Of particular importance are simple beam end framing connections. These are the most common type of connection found in steel buildings and are used at beam-to-girder and girder-to-column connections in the gravity load resisting system of a building. This dissertation focuses on one particular type of beam end connection: the single plate connection, also known as a shear tab vii connection. This connection is very commonly used in U.S. building construction practice. In this study, material properties of ASTM A992 structural steel at elevated temperatures up to 900°C were investigated by steady state tension coupon tests. Experimental studies on the connection subassemblies at elevated temperatures were conducted to understand and characterize the connection strength and deformation capacities, and to validate predictions of connection capacity developed by computational and design models. In the computational studies, a three-dimensional finite element connection model was developed incorporating contact, geometric and material nonlinearity temperature dependent material properties. The accuracy and limitations of this model were evaluated by comparison with experimental data developed in this research as well as data available in the literature. The computational studies investigated the typical behavior of the connection during heating and cooling phases of fires as well as the connection force and deformation demands. The finite element model was further used to study and understand the effects of several key building design parameters and connection details. Based on the test and analysis results, some important finding and conclusions are drawn, and future work for simple shear connection performance in fire are discussed.