RESEARCH ARTICLE


On the Robustness of Earthquake-Resistant Moment-Resistant Frames: Influence of Innovative Beam-to-Column Joints



Antonella Bianca Francavilla1, *, Massimo Latour1, Gianvittorio Rizzano1, Jean-Pierre Jaspart2, Jean-Francois Demonceau2
1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy
2 Department of Argenco, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Francavilla et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this authors at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy; Tel: +39089964342; E-mail: afrancavilla@unisa.it


Abstract

Background:

The deformation capacity of beam-to-column connections strongly influences the robustness of earthquake-resistant Moment Resistant Frames (MRFs) when subjected to a loss-of column scenario. As a consequence, with the aim of foresee the structural response up to the failure, an accurate modelling of the ultimate behaviour of the joints is needed.

Objective:

In this paper, the influence of the connections on the behaviour of MRFs under a loss-of-column scenario has been analysed considering an accurate modelling of the joints.

Method:

In addition, in order to achieve this goal, different beam-to-column joints designed for seismic actions and tested at the Salerno University, have been modelled and introduced in a case-study structure, whose response has been evaluated by means of push-down analyses. In particular, the connections analysed and modelled are of three different types: a dog-bone connection, a partial strength Double Split Tee (DST) joint and a partial strength connection with friction dampers.

Results / Conclusion:

The results of pushdown analyses performed by means of SAP2000 computer software have been examined with the aim to determine the Residual Reserve Strength Ratio (RRSR) index that, combined with the energy balance method proposed by Izzudin et al. (2008), allow to assess the structural ro-bustness.

Keywords: Innovative joints, Robustness, Column loss scenario, Push-down, End plates, Dog-bones.