Improved measure of beam-to-column joint rotation in steel frames

Abstract The behavior of beam-to-column joint rotation in a steel frame has been shown to have significant effects on the internal force distribution and the global deformation response. However, approaches to experimentally quantify the joint rotation are not well established. This fact impairs the applicability and comparability of research results on joint mechanical behavior. This paper compares different measurement methods in the research literature on beam-to-column joint rotation in steel frames, and proposes improved approaches for the experimental quantification of the rotation of welded joint and welded-flange-bolted-web (WFBW) joints. The feasibility and accuracy of the proposed methods are demonstrated by the comparison of results from simplified frame analysis with those from finite element analysis on both partial and complete structural levels.