Experimental and Analytical Study of High-Strength Steel RHS X-Joints under Axial Compression
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 12
Abstract
The use of high-strength steels for tubular structures has been forbidden or permitted with some joint-strength reduction in most representative international standards. Six rectangular hollow section (RHS) X-joint specimens were tested under axial compression to investigate inelastic joint behavior. The key test parameters included brace-to-chord width ratio and grade of steels. All high-strength steel specimens exhibited sufficient strength compared with current European standards’ strength criteria; their strengths were even higher than the standard’s prescribed unreduced nominal strength. Significantly different postyielding behavior was observed depending upon the brace-to-chord width ratio and the grade of steels. It was also observed that the formulation of sidewall buckling strength in the current European standard tends to predict overly conservative results and requires further examination. A new design formula for RHS X-joints subjected to sidewall buckling was proposed in this paper based on a more realistic buckling shape. When the normalized plate slenderness ratio newly defined in this study is used in conjunction with the column curve of the European standard, both accuracy and consistency of strength predictions were significantly improved compared with those of the strength formulas currently available.
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Acknowledgments
The support provided to this study by the POSCO Affiliated Research Professor Program is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 12 • December 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 18, 2018
Accepted: Mar 28, 2019
Published online: Sep 19, 2019
Published in print: Dec 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Feb 19, 2020
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