A PROBABILISTIC EVALUATION OF THE ROTATION CAPACITY OF END-PLATE BEAM-TO-COLUMN STEEL JOINTS

In recent years, the pursuit of increased competitiveness of steel construction has led to the quest for simpler and more economical joint details. The underlying concept of semi-continuity requires that adequate rotation capacity is available, that is very much dependent on a good balance between ductile and brittle components. In this paper, a probabilistic approach based on the Monte Carlo method is implemented to investigate the sensitivity of end-plate beamto-column joints to (i) the differences between nominal and actual material properties of steel and (ii) the difference between actual moment-rotation behaviour and the elastic-perfectly plastic response usually assumed in terms of codes of practice.

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