Fracture Strength of Welded Flange-Bolted Web Connections
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 125, Issue 5
Abstract
In 1994, California's steel building frames withstood the 6.8 magnitude Northridge earthquake without collapse or casualties. Severe damage, however, was sustained by the welded flange-bolted web connections: at the column-weld interface brittle fractures were discovered. Using linear elastic fracture mechanics this unexpected failure mechanism is explored in this work. Post-Northridge connection test results and recent finite-element studies supply the springboard for this investigation of the fracture strength of welded flange-bolted web connections. A method of predicting the brittle fracture strength of these connections is presented and validated. The probability of brittle fracture is also investigated.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 125 • Issue 5 • May 1999
Pages: 565 - 571
History
Received: Dec 12, 1997
Published online: May 1, 1999
Published in print: May 1999
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