EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BEAM-COLUMN CONNECTIONS WITH OPENINGS ON BEAM WEBS IN STEEL FRAMES

Steel frame structures have been widely used in multi-storey and high-rise buildings. Many studies about the connection had been carried out, especially with focus on its ductility. The connections play an important role in steel frame structures. Therefore, the study on the behavior of the beam-column connections to improve ductility as well as to prevent brittle failure was carried out in this research. In order to control the position of plastic hinge on the beam, a new type of connection with openings on the beam web was developed. Through the experimental investigation of five groups of specimens with different test variables under cyclic loads, the stress distribution of the section, the hysteretic behavior, the connection failure modes, and the ultimate capacity are presented in this paper. Moreover, the finite element method was also used to analyze the model and the results were compared with those of experiments. Theoretical calculation and tests results show that the failure modes of this kind of connections change from brittle damage to local buckling of beam web, which reduces the possibility of fragility damage of connections because of the improvement of the ductility performance of connections. In addition, the position of plastic hinge is under control with this connection form. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that this type of connection is effective for beam column connection in multi-storey buildings and high-rise buildings.