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CYCLIC BEHAVIOUR OF
BOLTED JOINT COMPONENTS
ABSTRACT
The cyclic behaviour of the most important component of bolted beam-to-column connections is investi-
gated. To this scope, the cyclic inelastic response of bolted T-stubs has been experimentally analysed by
means of constant amplitude cyclic tests. In particular, two series of specimens, made of T-stubs derived
from HEA160 and HEA220 profiles, are tested for different amplitudes aiming at the evaluation of the
corresponding low cycle fatigue curve. Different fatigue models based either on the total displacement
range or on the plastic displacement range are analysed and discussed. On the basis of the obtained
results, the use of fatigue models based on the characterization of the cycle amplitude through the plastic
displacement seems to lead to a more general interpretation of testing evidence.
KEYWORDS
Cyclic behaviour, low cycle fatigue, experimental tests, component method, bolted connections, seismic
design
INTRODUCTION
The inelastic response of steel structures subjected to cyclic loads is significantly affected by the rotatio-
nal behaviour of beam-to-column connections. In particular, with reference to the elastic response of
steel frames, both the period of vibration and the frame sensitivity to second order effects are amplified
due to the rotational deformability of semirigid joints. In addition, referring to the inelastic response, the
joint rotational deformability gives also rise to a reduction of the available global ductility with respect
to the ideal rigid frame. However, the available global ductility of steel frames is mainly governed by the
local ductility supply which, in turn, is strongly affected by the flexural strength of the beam-to-column
joints. In fact, local ductility is provided by the yielding of the beam ends, in the case of full strength
connections, or by the yielding of the connecting elements, in the case of partial strength connections.
For these reasons, the prediction of the moment-rotation curve of beam-to-column connections, i.e. their
flexural resistance and rotational stiffness, is of primary importance also from the seismic point of view.
This topic has been widely investigated and is now codified by Eurocode 3 in its Annex J (CEN
TC250/SC3, 1997) where the criteria for predicting the rotational behaviour of connections through the
component approach are given. In addition, studies aiming to extend its application to connection typo-
logies not covered by Eurocode 3 have been developed (Faella et al., 1996; 1997a).
With reference to partial strength connections, additional difficulties arise due to the need of predicting
their plastic rotation supply and low cycle fatigue. Even though, a significant number of experimental
tests have been carried out all over the world regarding full scale beam-to-column joints under both
monotonic (Weinand, 1992) and cyclic loads (Azizinamini and Radziminski, 1989; Ballio and Chen,
1993a; 1993b; Bernuzzi, 1992; Bernuzzi et al. 1997; Engelhardt and Husain, 1993; Mander et al., 1994;
Pekcan et al., 1995; Tsai and Popov, 1988), criteria for predicting the plastic rotation supply of connec-
tions have not been established due to the great number of connection typologies and to the high sensiti-
vity of the response to the connection structural detail.
A first attempt to face the problem from a theoretical point of view has been developed by means of the
component approach (Faella et al., 1997b; 1997c). In particular, it has been underlined that the plastic
rotation supply of connections is, basically, the ratio between the plastic deformation capacity of the
weakest joint component, governing the joint flexural resistance, and the lever arm. In addition, the
theoretical bases for predicting the plastic deformation capacity of bolted T-stubs, i.e. the most impor-
tant component of bolted connections, have been laid down.
The encouraging results obtained through the component method in predicting the plastic rotation sup-
ply of bolted connections (Faella et al., 1997c) have suggested the possibility to extend this approach to
the case of connections under cyclic loads. This idea is not a new one as testified in the technical
literature by the study of mechanical models aimed at the cyclic behaviour of beam-to-column joints
(Bernuzzi and Serafini, 1997; De Stefano et al., 1994; Madas and Elnashai, 1992). Within this frame-
work, it is of primary importance the characterization of the cyclic behaviour of the single components.
In fact, it is the Authors opinion that the use of the component approach for predicting the cyclic
behaviour of beam-to-column joints up to failure has to rely on a reliable modelling of the cyclic beha-
viour of the basic joint components. For this reason, an experimental program devoted to the analysis of
the cyclic behaviour of the basic joint components has been planned. The preliminary results of this
program are presented and discussed in this paper. In particular, two series of bolted T-stubs, made of
T-elements derived from rolled profiles, have been subjected to constant amplitude cyclic tests aiming at
the evaluation of the corresponding fatigue curves and degradation laws of stiffness, resistance and
energy dissipation capacity.
n m 0.8 r
r
df
B
tf
b
X B
The main purpose of the monotonic tests is the evaluation of the plastic deformation capacity of the
specimens whose value has been used to establish the range of the amplitude values to be adopted in
cyclic tests.
The results of the monotonic tests are presented in Fig.2 and in Fig.3 for HEA160-M1 and HEA220-M1
specimens, respectively.
The failure mode of HEA160-M1 specimen was characterized by significant yielding of the flanges with
yield lines developing similarly to the non-circular pattern of Eurocode 3. This gave rise to great plastic
deformations. The attainment of the maximum load carrying capacity and the subsequent failure were
practically due to the penetration of the bolt head and the bolt nut in the flange hole. In addition, the
cracking of the flange was observed close to toe of the flange-to-web fillet in the central part of the
flange close to the bolts.
Even though both specimens were designed, on the base of their nominal properties, to fail involving the
flanges only, the plastic deformation of specimen HEA220-M1 initially developed similarly to the pre-
vious case, but the premature failure of one bolt prevented the complete development of the non-circular
pattern of yielding. For this reason, two monotonic tests were performed to check the failure mode. Due
to flange overstrength and random material variability, in both cases fracture of one bolt occurred, so
that the ultimate plastic deformation of this specimen was significantly less than that of HEA160 profile.
Regarding the cyclic tests, all specimens exhibited the same failure mode independently of the imposed
displacement amplitude. Cracking of flanges initially developed in the central part of the flange, corre-
sponding to the bolt row location, at the flange-to-web connection zone. The number of the cycle corre-
sponding to the development of the first cracking was dependent on the displacement amplitude of the
cyclic test, as much greater as smaller is the displacement amplitude. By increasing the number of cycles
these cracks progressively propagated towards the flange edges up to the complete fracture of one flange
which produced the complete loss of the load carrying capacity. This behaviour gave rise to a progressi-
HEA160-M1
300
250
FORCE (kN)
200
150
100
50
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
300
250
150
100
50
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
Figure 3: Monotonic test of bolted T-stub derived from HEA220 profile
1
50
233
0
-50 0
1
5
-100
-150 depicted cycles: 0-5, 10-20-...-50, 75-100-...-225,
230, 231, 232, 233, 234
-200
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
ve deterioration, up to failure, of axial strength, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity, as it is testi-
fied, as an example, in Figs.4 and 5, regarding HEA160 specimens, and in Figs.6 and 7, regarding
HEA220 specimens.
FORCE (kN)
100 4
6
-100
-200 1
0
-300
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
Figure 5: HEA160-C5 specimen under 30.0 mm constant amplitude test
100 300
0
-100
5
10
25
-200 310
depicted cycles: 0-5, 10-20-...-50, 75-100-...-300,
305,306,307,308,309,310
-300
-2 0 2 4 6 8
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
total displacement range or with the plastic displacement range only deserves to be furtherly discussed
within the international scientific community.
The number of plastic reversals to failure Nf is generally related to the plastic displacement amplitude
vp or to the total displacement amplitude v by means of relationships of the following form:
vp = a Nfb (1)
v = a Nfb (2)
In logarithmic scale equations (1) and (2) are represented by straight lines so that the coefficients a and
b or a and b can be easily computed by means of regression analyses provided that constant amplitude
tests on nominally equal structural details are available.
The coefficients a and a can be interpreted as the values of the plastic and of the total displacement,
respectively, leading to failure under monotonic loading conditions. Therefore, from a theoretical point
of view, they could be experimentally evaluated or numerically predicted by means of an appropriate
model of the structural detail. On the contrary, the coefficients b and b can only be experimentally
derived. Therefore, it is of primary importance to characterize the fatigue curve of any given structural
detail with a proper value of b or b. From the practical point of view, a very important question arises.
HEA220-C4 (amplitude = 24.0 mm)
400 cycles to complete fracture = 14
300 0
5
1
200
FORCE (kN)
14
100
0
-100
-200
5 1 0
-300
-400
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
Figure 7: HEA220-C4 specimen under 24.0 mm constant amplitude test
Can the value of b or b be assumed constant or is it dependent on the typology of the structural element
and the geometrical and mechanical properties of the structural detail?
As an example, in the case of steel members, Krawinkler and Zohrei (1983) have clearly underlined that
the coefficient b depends on the width-to-thickness ratios of the plate elements constituting the member
section and governing the occurrence of local buckling. On the contrary, other researchers suggest the
use of a constant value of b equal to 0.333 both for steel members and for beam-to-column connec-
tions (Bernuzzi et al., 1997; Castiglioni and Calado, 1996). This value has been also obtained for b by
Pekcan et al. (1995) testing top and seat angle connections. However, available studies on the low cycle
fatigue of steel beam-to-column connections are still too much limited to obtain general conclusions.
In addition, different values of the coefficients a and b can correspond to different failure criteria. In
fact, failure can be defined as the complete loss of the load carrying capacity (as an example the
complete fracture of one flange under cyclic loads) or as a given deterioration of the strength, the
stiffness or the energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, different conventional failure criteria can be used.
As there is not a failure criterion universally recognized, three different criteria have been considered in
this work. They are based on deterioration of strength, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity accor-
ding to the following relationships, respectively:
Fi Ki Ei (3)
; ;
F1 K1 E1
where Fi is the maximum strength attained during the i-th semicycle, Ki is the stiffness of the unloading
branch of the i-th semicycle, Ei is the energy dissipated during the i-th semicycle, F1, K1 and E1 are,
respectively, the corresponding values recorded during the first semicycle. The parameter establishes
the selected level of deterioration of the chosen mechanical property and, therefore, the conventional
failure. The value = 0.5 has been assumed as the conventional level of deterioration corresponding to
failure (Castiglioni and Calado, 1996).
In order to evaluate the number of cycles to conventional failure and the corresponding number of
plastic reversals, the nondimensional strength, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the i-th cycle
have been plotted versus the cycle number. The intersection between the obtained curves and the hori-
zontal line corresponding to the chosen value of provides, for each failure criterion, the corresponding
number of cycles to conventional failure (Fig.8,9).
For each series of specimens and for each amplitude of the imposed displacement, the number of cycles
and the corresponding number of plastic reversals to conventional failure have been evaluated for all the
considered failure criteria. These data allow the evaluation of the low cycle fatigue curves of the two
series of tested specimens, as depicted in Figs. 10, 11 and 12 for the different failure criteria, where the
data corresponding to the ultimate displacement under monotonic loading conditions are also presented.
It can be noted that, in the case of HEA160 specimens, the point corresponding to the monotonic test is
well aligned with those corresponding to the cyclic tests. Therefore, in this case, the intersection between
the straight line representing in logarithmic scale the low cycle fatigue curve and the ordinate axis
provides with sufficient accuracy the monotonic response. This is due to the fact that, for this series of
1.2
Fi HEA160
F1 1
0.8
0.6
5 7 24 81 109
0.4
v =13 mm
v =9 mm
0.2 v =30 mm
v =20 mm
v =6 mm
0
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500
Number of cycles
1.2
Ei HEA220
E1 1
0.8
0.6
11 30 94 143
0.4
0.2
v=24 mm v=16 mm
v =10 mm v=7 mm
0
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500
Number of cycles
Figure 9: Degradation of energy dissipation for HEA220 specimens
specimens, both under monotonic and under cyclic loading conditions the failure mode involved the
T-stub flanges only.
On the contrary, in the case of HEA220 specimens, the point corresponding to the monotonic tests is not
aligned with those corresponding to the cyclic tests. This is justified considering that, in this case, the
failure mode under monotonic loading conditions (fracture of bolts) is different from that occurring
under cyclic loads (complete fracture of T-stub flanges).
From a theoretical point of view, the low cycle fatigue curve of a given structural detail could be defined
by establishing its slope b on the basis of the results obtained from cyclic tests on similar structural
details and by predicting the ultimate displacement under monotonic loading conditions (lna = vu.mon).
However, the results obtained in the presented experimental program show that this is only possible
provided that the specimens exhibit similar failure modes both under monotonic and under cyclic loa-
ding conditions.
Another important observation coming from the obtained fatigue curves is that both the coefficient b and
the coefficient b, i.e. the slope of the fatigue curves, are dependent on the geometrical properties of the
structural detail. In fact, the slope of the fatigue curve corresponding to HEA160 specimens is, for all
the examined fatigue models, greater than that corresponding to HEA220 specimens. The minimum diffe-
50% STRENGTH DEGRADATION 50% STRENGTH DEGRADATION
100 200
monotonic tests HEA220 T-stubs HEA220 T-stubs
50
30
20
20
10
HEA160 T-stubs HEA160 T-stubs
10
a = 74.6 5 a = 86.1
b = - 0.44 b = - 0.58
5 2
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 1,000 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 1,000
NUMBER OF REVERSALS TO CONVENTIONAL FAILURE NUMBER OF REVERSALS TO CONVENTIONAL FAILURE
Figure 10: Low cycle fatigue curves for failure criterion based on strength degradation
b = - 0.40 50 b = - 0.54
30
20
20
10
Figure 11: Low cycle fatigue curves for failure criterion based on stiffness degradation
50% DEGRADATION OF ENERGY DISSIPATION CAPACITY 50% DEGRADATION OF ENERGY DISSIPATION CAPACITY
100 200
monotonic tests HEA220 T-stubs HEA220 T-stubs
PLASTIC AMPLITUDE (mm)
50
30
20
20
10
HEA160 T-stubs HEA160 T-stubs
10 a = 92.0 5 a = 114.1
b = - 0.55 b = - 0.71
5 2
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500
NUMBER OF REVERSALS TO CONVENTIONAL FAILURE NUMBER OF REVERSALS TO CONVENTIONAL FAILURE
Figure 12: Low cycle fatigue curves for failure criterion based on degradation of energy dissipation
rence between the slope of the fatigue curves of HEA160 and HEA220 specimens occurs when the
failure criterion is based on the strength degradation.
Regarding the different fatigue models, it can be observed that, independently of the failure criterion
(degradation of strength, stiffness or energy dissipation capacity), the fatigue model based on the cha-
racterization of the cycle amplitude through the plastic displacement gives always rise to a vp versus Nf
curve having a slope (i.e. an absolute value of b) greater than that corresponding to the fatigue model
based on the total displacement range (i.e. the v versus Nf curve).
100
50
displacement amplitude
30 vp.mon= 4
20
8
10 12
5 vp.mon= 16
3
2 v = vp= a ( N f )b
8
vp.mon=
1
1 2 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000
Number of reversals to conventional failure
Figure 13: Influence of the elastic part of the displacement range on the fatigue model
This result agrees with that obtained by Pekcan et al. (1995) who tested top and seat angle connections
subjected to low cycle fatigue.
However, the use of testing evidence is not necessary to demonstrate that the ratio b b is always greater
than 1.0. In fact, with reference to an ideal elastic-perfectly plastic cyclic behaviour (but also in the case
of strain-hardening models), it can be easily observed that:
v = vp + 2 vy (4)
where vy is the first yielding displacement.
Therefore, by assuming that low cycle fatigue can be properly modelled by means of equation (1), the
following relationship can be obtained:
v = a Nfb + 2 vy (5)
Taking into account that the coefficient a can be interpreted as the ultimate plastic displacement vp.mon
under monotonic loading conditions and by introducing the available plastic ductility under monotonic
loading:
_ vp.mon (6)
vp.mon =
vy
equation (5) can be written as:
vp.mon (7)
v = vp.mon Nfb + 2 _
vp.mon
_
This means that the logarithmic representation of the fatigue model (2) depends on the value of vp.mon,
_ of the elastic part of the imposed displacement range. This is furtherly clarified in
i.e. on the "weight"
Fig.13. The case vp.mon = (i.e. vy = 0) corresponds to the rigid-plastic _ behaviour for which the fatigue
model given by equation (1) is unquestionable. For finite values of vp.mon the logarithmic representation
of equation (5) is non-linear, but, in the low cycle range (as an example Nf < 100) the corresponding
curves can be approximated, with _ sufficient accuracy, with straight lines. However, the slope of these
linearized curves increases as_ vp.mon increases. This means that the ratio b b is greater than 1.0 and
increases as vy increases (as vp.mon decreases), i.e. the ratio b b increases as the "weight" of the elastic
part of the total displacement range increases.
According to this interpretation, it is suggested the use of fatigue models based on plastic displacement
range, i.e. equation (1), rather than on total dispalcement range, i.e. equation (2). In fact, the coefficient
b of the fatigue model given by equation (2) is dependent on the "weight" of the elastic part of the total
displacement range. _
In the examined cases, which are characterized by small values of vy (i.e. great values of vp.mon,) the
ratio b b ranged between 1.29 and 1.35. However, this ratio can reach greater values in the case of
beam-to-column connections where, due to the presence of many components (column web in compres-
sion, tension and shear, column flange in bending, end plate or angles in bending, etc.), the elastic part
of the total displacement range can be significant compared to that of the single T-stub component.
This consideration justifies the difference between the values of b (ranging between 0.40 and 0.55
obtained in this work and that (b = 0.333) suggested by other researchers (Bernuzzi et al., 1997;
Castiglioni and Calado, 1996).
CONCLUSIONS
The experimental results presented in this work, dealing with the most important joint component, have
evidenced that the slope of the fatigue curve of bolted T-stubs is greater than that occurring in the case
of beam-to-column connections subjected to low cycle fatigue. In addition, it has been underlined that
this result can be justified considering that the slope of the v versus Nf curve depends on the "weight"
of the elastic part of the total displacement amplitude. In fact, in the examined case, it is small compared
to that occurring in actual beam-to-column connections.
Finally, it has been underlined that test results under monotonic loading conditions are approximately
aligned with the fatigue curve, provided that the failure mode under monotonic loads and that under
cyclic loads are coincident.
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