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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 91
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CIVIL, STRUCTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING COMPUTING
Edited by: B.H.V. Topping, L.F. Costa Neves and R.C. Barros
Paper 2

The Influence of the Chord Axial Load on the Resistance of RHS "T" Joints with Axially Loaded Braces: A Parametric Study

R.M.M.P. de Matos1, L.F. Costa-Neves2, L.R.O. de Lima3, J.G. Santos da Silva4 and P.C.G. da S. Vellasco3

1Civil Engineering Department, 2ISISE, Civil Engineering Department,
University of Coimbra, Pólo II, Portugal
3Structural Engineering Department, 4Mechanical Engineering Department,
Faculty of Engineering, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
R.M.M.P. de Matos, L.F. Costa-Neves, L.R.O. de Lima, J.G. Santos da Silva, P.C.G. da S. Vellasco, "The Influence of the Chord Axial Load on the Resistance of RHS "T" Joints with Axially Loaded Braces: A Parametric Study", in B.H.V. Topping, L.F. Costa Neves, R.C. Barros, (Editors), "Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering Computing", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 2, 2009. doi:10.4203/ccp.91.2
Keywords: steel structures, tubular joints, nonlinear analysis, finite element method.

Summary
Square hollow sections (SHS) are increasingly being used in truss structures with axial load present in all of their members. This study mainly focuses on the behaviour of fully welded connections between SHS members to form a "T-Joint". The study involved the development of a numerical model subjected to various levels of chord axial loads (under tension or compression).

These connections present a minor axis behaviour characterized by the absence of a point which clearly indicates the connection failure indicating the need for the development of some approximate methods to estimate the connection failure.

The model was performed using the ANSYS program [1] with shell elements where both the weld and the root radius were simulated. A total of 210 simulations was performed. The model was validated against experimental results performed by Lie et al. [2].

The numerical study results indicated that both the connection resistance and the initial stiffness increases with an increase of beta as it was previously observed in several studies.

The case without an axial load in a chord led to a higher connection resistance. For beta<0.7 the compression load produced higher load carrying capacities than the tension cases while values of ß above that limit led to lower joint ultimate load resistances.

For cases where beta>0.8 the numerical and analytical resistances still showed a significant difference but this was less significant for values of beta below that limit where both approaches gave similar results.

References
1
ANSYS 10.0®, ANSYS - Inc. Theory Reference, 2005.
2
S. Lie, S. Chiew, C. Lee, Z. Yang, "Static strength of cracked square hollow section T joints under axial loads. I: Experimental", Journal of Structural Engineering, 132(3), 368-377, 2006. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2006)132:3(368)

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