Ultimate strength of stiffened symmetrical welded steel beam-to-column flange connections

Abstract Several studies have confirmed the importance, in beam-column connections, of reinforcing the column web with horizontal stiffeners opposite the beam flanges welded to the column web and flanges. Present design codes, besides being conservative, do not adequately reflect the role of the stiffeners as lateral support to the column web aginst buckling. Non-linear finite element formulations, employing an incremental version of Stowell's deformation theory and a scaled version of the inverse power method, allowed accurate predictions of the bifurcation load of general concentrically stiffened steel plates in the elasto-plastic range. In this paper, the analytical procedure developed has been used to provide qualitative and quantitative design information on the strength of this type of connection by conducting a parameteric study, the parameters considered being the effect of stiffener size on column web buckling capacity and the effect of column axial load on the stiffening requirements of a connection. It has been demonstrated that proper reinforcing of the column web can, in practice, diminish the harmful effects of high column axial loads on connections.

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