Experimental Study on Hysteretic Behavior for Plate-Reinforced Connections
8 plate-reinforced connections are manufactured at 1/2 scale and then tested under low-cyclic loadings to study their hysteretic behavior, and numerical simultation with ANSYS are applied based on the experimental results. Failure patterns, energy dissipation, hysteretic behavior and skeleton curves are comparatively studied by changing the dimensions of the reinforced plates. Results show:(1)the plastic hinge be formed 1/3-1/4 beam depth from the end of reinforced plate and is obvious, there are serious local buckling in the flange and web, and there is no fracture in the beam-to-column welding;(2)The geometric parameters of reinforced plate have important effect to the bearing capacity and ductility of connections. With the increase of length and thickness of reinforced plate, the bearing capacity increases and hysteretic behavior and ductility factor decreases;(3)When the length of reinforced plate is bigger than the design requirements, there is brittle failure in the panel zone, which lead to decrease of capacity of energy dissipation and equivalent viscous damp coefficient;(4)Recommended parameter scope: the recommended length of reinforced plate(flange-plate and cover-plate) is defined as 0.5-0.8 times beam depth, the recommended thickness of flange-plate is 1.2-1.4 times flange and the recommended thickness of cover-plate is 0.7-1.2 times flange.