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An experimental investigation of the ultimate capacity of single plate connections

University of British Columbia

Single plate connections are becoming increasingly popular in joining beams to girders and beams to columns and are particularly superior in the case of skewed connections. However, there are no comprehensive design rules available for the complete single plate connection. Related methods deal only with specific connection problems for example eccentrically loaded bolted and welded connections. Generally, for a welded connection attached to a rigid support the strength of the weld is considered critical. However, it has to be recognized that the base metal in the vicinity of the weld may become locally overstressed before the weld strength becomes critical leading to inelastic failure, or buckling of the supporting member. An experimental investigation using full scale test specimens was conducted on the overall ultimate load carrying capacity of the single plate connections joining beams to girders. It was found that for ratios of connection plate depth to the depth of the supporting girder of less than 60%, there were localized regions of the girder in the vicinity of the connection plate which became highly overstressed at loads much below the girder's ultimate shear capacity. These regions included the top flange of the girder just above the connection plate showing torsional buckling due to the closeness of the top flange, plate buckling of the top flange above the connection plate due to combined torsional and flexural stresses, and plate buckling of the girder web below the connection plate. The ultimate failure load of the single plate connections was found to be at a load much lower than the girder's ultimate shear capac ity. From the analysis of the experimental results and parameter studies, a design formula was proposed which can be used to predict the ultimate capacity of single plate connections. The formula incorporated the skew angle of the connection and the ultimate torsional moment resistance of the connection plate in addition to the ultimate shear force resistance, ultimate torsional moment resistance, and bending moment resistance of the supporting girder. The test results showed the design formula was a good indicator for the prediction of the ultimate capacity of single plate connections.

Text

2010-07-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26344

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

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