LOCATION AND CONFIGURATION OF REDUCED BEAM SECTION CONNECTION EFFECTS ON STRENGTH, STIFFNESS AND DUCTILITY OF MOMENT STEEL FRAMES

Moment resistant frames are mainly used in resisting lateral loads in buildings. During the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, some of these moment steel frame connections could not undergo inelastic deformation which led to many structural damages. New connection systems were proposed and tested which performed better than the pre-Northridge moment frame connections. Reduced beam section (RBS) connection is one of the most widely used connections after the Northridge Earthquake. Instead of increasing the steel at beam-column, the RBS connection rather removed steel from the flange of the beam. This connection thus gives the designer the option of deciding where the yield will occur in the frame. This research studies the three different parameters used in describing the location and configuration of the radius cut reduced beam section by employing finite element modeling. Variations in ductility, strength and elastic displacement were observed as these parameters were changed. Reducing the flange thus helped with ductility but affected the lateral load carrying capacity and stiffness of the frame