Behavior of Stiffened Skewed Extended Shear Tab Connections

The behavior of the skewed extended shear tab connections has been studied using computational nonlinear mechanics. While the unstiffened skewed extended shear tab connections have been investigated in a previous study, this study addresses failure modes and the analyses of different configurations of stiffened skewed extended shear tab connections using the finite element analysis (FEA) ABAQUS. The finite element model is verified with experimental results from tests performed on extended shear tab connections. Results showed that the vertical connection displacement decreases slightly with the increase of the connection orientation. Moreover, it was observed that the type of supporting member highly affected the torsional behavior of these connections. For connections with a column as a supporting member, it was proven that the torsional stiffness increases with increase of the connection orientation except for connections with three bolts, where the torsional stiffness decreases as the connection orientation increases at a high level of shear force. On the other hand, it was detected for connections with a girder as a supporting member, the torsional stiffness decreases with the increase of the connection orientation. However, the same failure modes were obtained from the orthogonal and skewed configurations.