Open Access Experimental Study and Finite Element Analysis of Hysteretic Behavior of End-plate Connection Semi-Rigid Space Steel Frames

Abstract: To investigate the seismic behavior of end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frames, three 1/4-scale spe-cimens were tested under cyclic load. Finite element analysis which took initial geometric imperfections into considera-tion was also conducted, and the results conform to experimental results. The failure modes, hysteretic behavior, deforma-tion capacity and energy-dissipation capacity of the end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frame have been expli-cated in this paper. The investigation in this paper indicates that: (1) the end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frames exhibit full hysteretic loops under horizontal cyclic load and have good ductility as well, indicating that this kind of frames can satisfy the deformation demand in strong earthquakes. (2) Plastic hinges formed at beam ends, and the stress and deformation amplitudes of joint-panels were smaller than those of column base and beam ends. It shows that this kind of frames satisfy the design principle “strong column weak beam, strong joint weak component”