Investigation on seismic performance of weak-axis moment connections with European profiles

Earthquakes that occurred in recent years showed that the appropriate design of steel connections has a great effect on the seismic performance of the whole steel structural system. Extensive researches were carried out for understanding the behavior of strong axis steel beam to column connections which focused on strength, stiffness, and ductility properties. On the other hand, there were limited numbers of studies on structural properties of weak-axis steel beam to column connections. In this study, an experimental research and a finite element study on weak-axis steel beam-column connection with S275 steel quality and European profiles were carried out. For this purpose, six test specimens were designed, and the cyclic load was applied to three specimens while the other three specimens were tested under monotonic loading. The moment-rotation hysteresis loops and the failure modes for all test specimens are presented. Generated moment-rotation curves of the joints were compared with finite element results. A satisfactory agreement was observed between the FE predictions and experimental tests. Besides, the correct determination of the over-strength factor of structural steel takes an important place for the design of the structure according to the capacity design philosophy. Therefore, material over-strength factors were obtained by using the tensile tests of S275 steel, and these factors were compared with those recommended by the design codes. The test results show that all weak-axis steel beam-column joints performed well in terms of rotation capacity, strength, ductility, and energy dissipation with S275 steel quality and European shapes.