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A numerical study on bolted end-plate

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Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426
DOI 10.1617/s11527-007-9339-5
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A numerical study on bolted end-plate connection using
shape memory alloys
Hongwei Ma Chongdu Cho Tim Wilkinson
Received: 26 July 2007 / Accepted: 29 November 2007 / Published online: 3 January 2008
! RILEM 2007
Abstract Superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs)
have the ability to recover their original shape after
experiencing large strains. A new beam-to-column
connection incorporating long shank SMA bolts is
presented in this paper. By using the unique charac-
teristics of SMAs, the connection possesses self-
centering abilities. The 3D connection model is
created using the software ANSYS, and Auricchios
model is used to simulate the superelastic behavior of
the SMA bolts. With cyclic loads applied on the beam
ends, the behavior of the connection is studied. The
results show the semi-rigid and moderate energy
dissipation characteristics of the connection. Since the
moment-carrying capacity of bolt cluster controlled
below the elastic flexural capacity of connecting beam,
a superelastic hinge forms just at the beam-to-column
interface. The inelastic interstory drift angle of the
connection reaches 0.035 rad, and 94% of the total
rotations are recoverable upon unloading.
H. Ma (&)
Department of Civil Engineering, South China University
of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, P.R. China
e-mail: mhwinha@gmail.com
C. Cho
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Inha University,
Incheon 402-751, South Korea
T. Wilkinson
School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney,
Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
Keywords Superelastic effect ! Semi-rigid !
Ductility ! Connection ! Shape memory alloy
1 Introduction
Many traditional welded steel moment frame build-
ings were severely damaged at the beam-to-column
connections in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and
the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. Although post-earthquake
investigations presented different methods to improve
the seismic performances of welded connections [1,
2], the working principles of these methods are
invariably based on forcing a plastic hinge to form
away from the column face, and the enhanced
ductility of the connections is usually associated
with local buckling of the beam. These unrecoverable
plastic and local buckling deformations of connec-
tions cause both difficulties and high cost in the post-
disaster repair work. Hence structural components
with self-healing deformation capability have poten-
tial for use in seismic resistant design. Christopoulos
[3] presented a new class of connection consisting of
post-tensioned and energy dissipating bars, in which
an ideal restoring force was provided by the post-
tensioned bars and hence the connection was capable
of restoring its original shape. This is also referred to
as a self-centering characteristic. Ricles [4, 5] devel-
oped another self-centering connection consisting of
bolted angles and post-tensioned bars. The moment
resistant steel frame incorporating this connection
1420 Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426

can mitigate seismic force and possess additional

damping as well as incur no residual drift after a
seismic event [6, 7].
To date some smart materials with unique charac-
teristics have been used in seismic resistant design of
structures. Ocel [8] first integrated shape memory
alloys (SMAs) into traditional connections. By taking
advantage of the damping behavior of martensitic
SMAs and their shape memory effect (SME), the
connections not only showed good energy dissipation
capability in the test, but also had the ability to return
to their initial shape by heating the deformed SMA
bars. The SME feature of the SMAs has also been
proposed for use in confining reinforced concrete
members [9] and prestressing concrete to obtain
crack-free products [10].
This study investigates a new class of connection
consisting of extended end-plate and long shank
SMA bolts. By using the superelastic behavior of
SMAs, this connection is expected to withstand large
deformations upon loading and then restore these
deformations upon unloading. The 3D model of the
connection is created by the commercial finite
element software ANSYS. Material and geometric
nonlinearities are incorporated into the analysis. The
cyclic loads are applied on the beam ends, and the
rigidity, ductility and strength of the connection are
studied.

Fig. 1 The stressstrain curves for SMAs: (a) The superelastic

2 Shape memory alloys effect. (b) The shape memory effect

All NiTi SMAs exhibit two distinct crystal struc-

tures, martensite and austenite. Typically martensite
exists at low temperatures while austenite exists at
high temperatures. Above austenite finish tempera-
ture the material is fully in its austenitic form. Upon
loading martensite is stress-induced, resulting in a
stress plateau in stressstrain curves, as shown in
Fig. 1a. The martensite becomes unstable upon
unloading, and it transforms back to austenite with
restoring the initial undeformed shape. The recover-
able strain of SMAs can be as high as 810%, this is
called superelastic effect (SE). Below martensite
finish temperature the material is fully in its
martensitic form. Upon loading above a certain
strain, the detwinning process of martensite occurs
and the material is easily deformed to several
percent strain, as shown in Fig. 1b. Unloading
results in a residual deformation. The phase trans-
formation from martensite to austenite starts upon
heating the SMA above austenite start temperature,
while the phase transformation is complete at
austenite finish temperature, resulting in recovering
to the initial shape. This is called the shape memory
effect (SME).
Since the recoverable strains can be as high as
810% by using the SE feature, the superelastic
behavior of SMAs attracts more and more attentions
for civil engineering applications [11, 12]. Most
current applications pertain to SMA wire and thin
diameter SMA tendon. In order to assess the size
effect on superelasticity, DesRoches [13] tested
austenitic NiTi SMA bars with a diameter of
25.4 mm. The results indicated that nearly ideal
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426
superelastic properties could be obtained in bar form
of SMAs. Moreover, as a type of bridge displacement
restrainer, large diameter superelastic SMA bars with
the threaded connections were successfully subjected
to cyclical strains up to 8%, and also theoretically
validated to be effective in limiting the relative
displacement at the piers and abutments [14].
Abolmaali [15] studied 13 mm diameter NiTi SMA
rods with threaded connections. The results of the
tensile specimens demonstrated both ideal superelas-
tic properties and the feasibility of the threaded
connections.
3 The SMA connection
3.1 Configurations
Retrofitted rigid extended stiffened end-plate bolted
connection [16] with long shank SMA bolts and
specific connection details, such as ribs [17], to
prevent beam buckling, thus the SMA connection is
created, as shown in Fig. 2. The I-steel beam and
column are connected by the extended end-plate and
eight long shank Nitinol SMA bolts in their austenitic
forms. For each beam flange, there are two rows of
bolts, with one row outside the flange on the extended
part of the end-plate and the other inside the flange,
Fig. 2 The SMA connection diagram. (1) Bolt washer;
(2) End-plate; (3) Main reinforced part; (4) Rib curved part;
(5) Rib extension; (6) I-steel beam; (7) Rib; (8) Triangular
stiffener; (9) Bolt shank; (10) Column; (11) Continuity plate
1421
and two columns of bolts. The column flanges are
reinforced by four continuity plates at the beam
flange position. The beam flanges are strengthened by
ribs centered over the web of the beam, while the
beam web is stiffened by a triangular stiffener at web
mid-height at each side of web.
3.2 Design methodology
The following concepts are adopted to design the
SMA connection to avoid beam local buckling and
fully utilize the superelastic behavior of SMA bolts.
The moment capacity of the bolt group is less than
the elastic flexural capacity of connecting beam.
Elastic methods are used to design end-plate and
prying action should be avoided. Finally, since the
larger elongations of bolt shank result in the
increased deformation capacity of the connection,
thick bolt washers are used to achieve long enough
bolts. Similar with the traditional fraction type
high strength bolt, the gap between bolt shank
and end-plate hole is about 1 mm. A certain pre-
tension is applied to each SMA bolt in order that
the shear at the beam-to-column interface will be
transformed in the form of friction and the bolt
axial deformation occurs before bending and tor-
sion deformations.
4 Case study
4.1 Connection details and modeling
The single-side connection with a single cantilever
beam attached to the flange of a column is selected
for current study. The connection details are listed in
Table 1. The SMA bolt shank is 146 mm in length
and 1.2 times longer than that in traditional connec-
tion. Each row of bolts is 50 mm from the adjacent
flange face. The beam end is 1600 mm from the
column face while the height of column is 1800 mm.
Due to the symmetry about the center-plane of
beam and column webs, only one-half 3D models are
required for the finite element analysis. The majority
of the components are meshed by mapped mesh
except the end-plate and adjacent column flange, as
shown in Fig. 3a. The beam mesh density increases
towards the joint. The whole finite element model
1422 Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426

Table 1 Details of the SMA connection (Units: mm)

Specimen Beam Column Bolt End- Bolt washer Stiffener Rib dimensionb
identificationa section section diameter plate thickness thickness

SMA-8C 200 9 150 200 9 200 16 26 35 6 (100 + 180 + 200)

9 6 9 10 9 12 918 9 (115 + 25)/16
a
SMA-8C designates the SMA connection
b
The rib dimension is expressed by (main, curved and extension part length) 9 (main and extension part width)/thickness

consists of 18,062 elements, 63,026 nodes, and
involves solid, contact and pretensioned elements.
The 16 mm diameter SMA bolt shanks are modeled
by 33 elements along the bolt length and by 4 layers
through the depth, as shown in Fig. 3b.
The Elasto-plastic steel material behavior with
kinematic hardening was used based on Guo [18].
Shape memory material laws were chosen to predict
the SE behavior of the NiTi SMA bolts. ANSYS uses
the Auricchios model to reflect the forward and
reverse transformation involved in SE at isothermal
conditions [19]. The Auricchios model uses the
DruckerPrager criterion and an internal variable
formulation, making itself to be an efficient and
robust solution algorithm which could be used in
classical computational tools such as finite element
(FE) method. The Auricchio model differs from
thermodynamic constitutive laws describing the
macroscopic behavior of SMAs by using material
constants related to the thermodynamics of phase
transformation.
The basic equations for the Auricchios model
are:
Dr DDe # Detr 1
oF
Detr Dns eL 2
or
where Dr and De are incremental Kirchhoff stress
and strain respectively, D is the modulus of a SMA
material, Detr is incremental transformation strain,
and eL is the maximum recoverable residual strain.
F is DruckerPrager type loading function, and it
takes the form:
F ktk 3ap 3
where a is material parameters, p is pressure, defined
as p = tr(r)/3, and t is deviatoric part of the stress
defined as t = r - tr(r)1/3, k!k indicates the Euclid-
ean norm and tr indicates the trace operator.
The internal variable, ns, is the martensite fraction
and can be calculated from (4a) and (4b) for stress

Fig. 3 Connection model: (a) Core zone. (b) Long shank Bolt
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426 1423

induced martensite transformation and reverse trans- Table 2 Parameters for superelasticity simulation
formation, respectively: Identification Value
F_
n_ s #H AS 1 # ns 4a Stress induced martensite transformation
F # rAS
f 1 a Starting stress (MPa) 375
F_ Final stress (MPa) 430
n_ s H SA ns 4b Reverse phase transformation
F# rSA
f 1 a
Starting stress (MPa) 208
where rAS AS SA
s , rf , rs and rf
SA
are the critical stresses Final stress (MPa) 138
at the start of martensite, finish of martensite, start of Maximum recoverable strain 0.09
austenite, and finish of austenite transformation
respectively. HAS and HSA are the scalar quantities.
For a superelastic SMA material at isothermal This results in free in-plane deformation at the beam
conditions, the stressstrain diagram by using the end and pinned supports at the column ends. A
Auricchios model is shown in Fig. 4. coefficient of friction of 0.45 was defined for beam-
Referring to the test values of large diameter to-column contact based on the China code [20].
SMAs by DesRoches [13], the parameters listed in An axial load of 500 kN was imposed to the
Table 2 were used to simulate the SMA bolts in column top, resulting in the ratio of axial compres-
ANSYS. sion to column section bearing capacity equal 0.2. A
pre-tension of 75 kN was applied to all the SMA bolt
shanks to achieve a stress of 370 MPa, just below the
4.2 Boundary conditions and loads martensite transformation starting stress. By means of
degree of freedom coupling, cyclic lateral loads were
Out-of-plane deflections were prevented at the beam applied to the main node at the free end of cantilever
and column ends with the out-of-plane displacements beam, resulting in the same lateral displacement of
of the nodes at the beam and column ends set to zero. the associated nodes at the beam end. The displace-
In-plane lateral deflections for the nodes at beam ends ment control loading law was adopted in this study,
were permitted, but restrained for the column ends. and the applied moments were calculated by multiply
the beam reaction force with cantilever beam length.

4.3 Results and discussion

4.3.1 Deformation capacity and residual

deformation

By including material and geometric non-linearity

Fig. 4 The stressstrain diagram by using the Auricchios
model
and contact, the FE simulation is able to predict the
cyclic behavior of the SMA connection. Figure 5
shows the deformations of the SMA connection at
0.043 rad interstory drift angle and after unloading.
Different to a traditional connection, a superelastic
hinge forms at the beam-to-column interface and no
local buckling of connecting beam occurs during the
loading history. The deformation capacity of the
connection is mostly due to behavior of the SMA
bolts, and almost full deformation at peak load can be
automatically recovered upon unloading. This is
different to the high ductility achieved by utilizing
1424
Fig. 5 Connection deformations: (a) At 0.043 rad interstory
drift angle. (b) After unloading
strong plate concept in traditional connections. For
the long SMA bolts, the maximum strain at bolt
shanks reaches 9%, showing that the superelasticity
of SMAs is fully utilized. Since the SMA bolt length
affects the deformation capacity of the connection, a
shank length of up to 2.2 times the length of normal
bolt is suggested for SMA bolts.
The plots of applied moments at column face
versus total rotations of the connection are presented
in Fig. 6. The stable hysteretic curves with re-
centering capability can be seen, indicating the
moderate energy dissipating characteristics of the
connection. For 0.0337 rad interstory drift angle
cycles, the recoverable rotation of the connection
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426
Fig. 6 Applied moments versus interstory drift angles curves
reaches 0.0331 rad and is 98% of the total rotation.
For the 0.0428 rad interstory drift angle cycles, the
recoverable rotation reaches 0.0401 rad and is 94%
of the total rotation. The maximum total rotation
equals 0.043 rad, the maximum inelastic rotation is
0.035 rad and about 82% of the maximum total
rotation of the connection. The connection models
developed an inelastic rotation greater than 0.03 rad,
as suggested in the AISC Seismic Provisions for
Structural Steel Buildings [21]. This indicates that the
connection can be designed with enough ductility.
4.3.2 Moment capacity
The maximum applied moment at column face is
114 kNm. The nominal moment capacities of the
beam and bolt cluster are listed in Table 3. The flange
ribs increase the elastic moment capacity of the beam
by 65%, and the plastic moment capacity by 133%.
Table 3 The calculated values for the nominal moment
capacity
Identification Value
Ealastic moment capacity of the beama
Without considering rib effects (kNm) 93
With considering rib effects (kNm) 153
Plastic moment capacity of the beama
Without considering rib effects (kNm) 103
With considering rib effects (kNm) 240
The moment capacity of bolt cluster (kNm) 109
The maximum applied moment (kNm) 114
a
The moment capacities are calculated according to Chinese
code for Design of Steel Structures [20]
Materials and Structures (2008) 41:14191426 1425

With the maximum applied moment equal to

114 kNm, the connecting beam (and the ribs) remains
elastic. The FE simulation with a maximum applied
moment of 114 kNm agrees well with that of bolt
cluster.

4.3.3 Stiffness

According to moment and rotation relationship,

beam-to-column connections can be classified as
rigid, semi-rigid or flexible. In the classification
Fig. 7 The momentrotation relationship for the SMA
systems of Eurocode 3 [22], the moment is norma- connection
lised with reference to the plastic moment of the
connecting beam:
M classification criteria of Eurocode 3 [22] are plotted
M 5 in Fig. 7. The rigidity of the SMA connection is
Mp
much larger than that of flexible connection while a
where M is applied connection moment; Mp is plastic little smaller than that of rigid connection. The
moment capacity of the beam. The connection location of the skeleton curve indicates that the SMA
rotation is normalised with respect to the linear connection should be classified as semi-rigid.
stiffness of the connecting beam:
h
h 6 5 Conclusions and discussions
hp

Mp The cyclic behavior of SMA connection is predicted

hp EI 7 through complete 3D FE models. The results show
l that the deformations of the connection at peak load
where h is relative connection rotation; hp is nominal
plastic rotation capacity of the connection; EI is beam
bending stiffness; l is beam length.
A summary of the connecting beam characteristics
are listed in Table 4. The nominal plastic moment
capacity of connecting beam does not include the
flange rib effects, while the numerical simulation
result for the maximum applied connection moment
takes account of the rib effects, resulting in the
nondimensional moment and rotation for the SMA
connection beyond 1. Based on the hysteretic loops of
nondimensional moments and rotations, a skeleton
curve for the SMA connection and the connection
Table 4 Summary of the connecting beam properties
Identification Value
Nominal plastic moment capacity of the beam (kNm) 103
Linear stiffness of the beam (kNm) 4042
Nominal beam plastic rotation capacity (rad) 0.026
are recoverable upon unloading. In contrast to
traditional bolted moment connection, the SMA
connection shows moderate energy dissipating capac-
ity with the energy dissipated by the superelastic
SMA bolts. Since the moment capacity of bolt cluster
is below the elastic flexural capacity of the beam, a
superelastic hinge forms at beam-to-column inter-
face. The SMA connection shows obvious semi-rigid
characteristic and its ductility is significantly influ-
enced by the bolt length. For SMA bolts 2.2 times the
length of a standard bolt, the connection models show
a large inelastic rotation capacity beyond 0.03 rad,
indicating that the SMA connection can be designed
with enough ductility. For the 0.0428 rad interstory
drift angle cycles with the maximum inelastic rota-
tion equal 0.035 rad, the recoverable rotation can be
94% of the total rotation.
The re-centering behavior of the SMA connection
is verified by the numerical simulation. It should be
noted that some challenges have to be overcome so
that this unique behavior can be realized in real
1426
conditions. (1) Will some special configurations to
ensure the shear transfer from the column to the beam
be necessary in real conditions? (2) If the SMA bolts
shows a certain residual strain after several cycles of
load, how to decrease the influences of this strain on
the mechanical behavior of the SMA connection?
(3) How to assess the load rate effects? Further
investigations including experimental studies are
required to resolve these issues for the future
application in the real conditions.
Acknowledgement This work was supported by Inha
University.
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