Study of Eurocode 3 steel connection classification

The work provides an analytical evaluation of the Eurocode 3 classification on the three types of beam-to-column connections in steel construction. Extensive studies of the behavior of such connections in frames have been made, using the database complied by Kishi and Chen. These studies showed that most connections have semi-rigid behavior for drift check at service load, but become flexible for strength check at factored load. The EC3 code provides a suitable classification for ultimate strength check but is not adequate for drift check. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.