Application of Theory of Experimental Design and FEA to Assessment of Rotation Capacity of Steel Joints

Abstract

Rotation capacity plays a very important role in an advanced analysis of steel frames, especially in plastic design of structures. In current version of Eurocode 1993-1-8 there is a lack of design procedure to calculate rotation capacity of steel structure joints. In the paper the calculation procedure of the rotation capacity for stiffened bolted end-plate beam-to-column connections has been proposed. Because of many variables influencing rotation capacity of such joint, theory of experimental design was used. The analysis was performed with the use of finite element method, based on the numerical experiment plan. The determination of maximal rotation angle was carried out with the use of regression analysis. The main variables analyzed in parametric study were: pitch of the bolt “w” (120–180 mm), the distance between the bolt axis and the beam upper edge c_g1 (50–90 mm) and the thickness of the end-plate t_p (10–20 mm). Obtained simple formula can be used in everyday design practice to estimate rotation capacity of the joint.