Experimental Study on Cracking of Thick-Walled Welded Beam-Column Connections with Incomplete Penetration in Steel Bridge Piers
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 4
Abstract
Fracture of welded beam-column connections was observed in steel moment-resisting frame steel bridge piers during the 1995 Kobe (Hyogoken-Nanbu) Earthquake. In addition, welding defects in fillet welds and full penetration welds were recently reported in existing steel bridges. This paper aims to study the effects of incomplete penetration depth and loading histories on crack initiation and propagation of thick-walled beam-column connections during a strong earthquake event. Five specimens under three different loading histories were loaded quasi-statically, and different cracking modes were observed. The experimental results indicate that the cracking modes are closely correlated with the size of the incomplete penetration depth.
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Acknowledgments
The study is supported in part by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 24560588), and the Advanced Research Center for Natural Disaster Risk Reduction, Meijo University, which is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 4 • April 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 30, 2013
Accepted: Jun 4, 2014
Published online: Jun 25, 2014
Published in print: Apr 1, 2015
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