Date and Modeling for the Performance of Pristine and Blast Damaged Connections

A number of tests have been conducted by Karagozian & Case (K&C) to determine the effects of blast on the response and capacity of connections that are used in steel and reinforced concrete (RC) framing systems. Many of these tests were conducted using structural subassemblies comprised of a column with three girders framed into it using different types of connections. Connection responses were measured using two different protocols. One involved measuring the connections' performance after the column and girders were struck with a blast, while the other protocol involved measuring the response of pristine connections. In both situations, the lower portion of the column was removed to simulate a missing column design scenario, and an axial loading was applied to the top of the column to measure the capacity of the connections. For each test, a pretest prediction with a high-fidelity physics-based (HFPB) finite element (FE) model was made to assess the validity of HFPB FE modeling for this class of problem. This paper describes the results of this work, particularly focusing on the capability afforded by different types of steel connections.