Introducing box-plate beam-to-column moment connections

Nowadays, using high-ductility structures in the construction and use of significant buildings is highly appreciated. To use more ductile structures, effort has been made in this research to introduce box-plate beam-to-column connections. They underwent hysteretic loading and it was found from their moment-rotation curves that the bending capacity and ductility of the box-plate connection were more than ordinary rigid connection, and those of the latter were more than those of the normal typical one. It was also shown that stress concentration in box-plate connections disappears over the top and bottom flange plates

Seismic performance of box-plate, box-plate with UNP, box-plate with L-plate and ordinary rigid beam-to-column moment connections

Nowadays, using high-ductility structures in construction and significant buildings is highly appreciated. To use better ductile structures, effort has been made in this research to introduce box-plate, box-plate with UNP, box-plate with L-plate and ordinary beam-to-column connections. Eleven models with different shapes and thickness were analyzed and compared in this research, and they underwent hysteretic loading. Parameters such as restraint percentage, stiffness, strength, plastic hinge location, and ductility under cyclic loads were calculated for each model. It was found, from their moment-rotation curves that the bending capacity and ductility of the box-plate with UNP connection was greater than any other rigid connections, and those of the latter were greater than those of the normal, typical ones. It was also shown that stress concentration in box-plate with UNP connections disappear over the top and bottom flange plates

Analysis of stiffness and flexural strength of a reinforced concrete beam using an invented reinforcement system

In this study, we conducted experimental tests on two specimens of reinforced concrete beams using a three-point bending test to optimize the flexure and stiffness designs. The first specimen is a reinforced concrete beam with an ordinary reinforcement, and the second specimen has an invented reinforcement system that consists of an ordinary reinforcement in addition to three additional bracings using steel bars and steel plates. The results of the flexure test were collected and analyzed, and the flexural strength, the rate of damage during bending, and the stiffness were determined. Finite element modeling was applied for both specimens using the LSDYNA program, and the simulation results of the flexure test for the same outputs were determined. The results of the experimental tests showed that the flexural strength of the invented reinforcement system was significantly enhanced by 15.5% compared to the ordinary system. Moreover, the flexural cracks decreased to a significant extent, manifesting extremely small and narrow cracks in the flexure spread along the bottom face of the concrete. In addition, the maximum deflection for the invented reinforced concrete beam decreased to 1/3 compared to that of an ordinary reinforced concrete beam. The results were verified through numerical simulations, which demonstrated excellent similarities between the flexural failure and the stiffness of the beam. The invented reinforcement system exhibited a high capability in boosting the flexure design and stiffness