Extended End Plate Long Bolted Joint Using Cold Formed Steel Hollow and Concrete Filled Column

The objective of this study is to investigate the moment-rotation behaviour of the extended end plate long bolted moment connection using numerical, experimental and component method approaches. Totally thirty six models of the cold formed steel beam-column (hollow and concrete filled column) connection with different arrangement of long bolts are modeled and analysed using the finite element software ANSYS APDL. The cross-sectional dimension of the column and beam section is 50 mm × 100 mm × 2 mm. The length of column and beam section is 900 mm and 700 mm, respectively. The end plate size is 100 mm × 150 mm × 2.5 mm/4.0 mm and 6 mm diameter long bolts are used to connect the members in the joint. It is observed that the increase in the number of bolts increases the initial rotational stiffness and design moment capacity of the connections significantly. Substantial enhancement in the initial rotational stiffness and design moment capacity of the connection is achieved by using concrete fill in the column. From the experimental validation, it is noticed that the finite element models satisfactorily predict the actual behaviour of the extended end plate bolted moment connections. Also the initial rotational stiffness of the connections is determined based on the component method as specified in Euro Code 3(BS EN 1993-1-1 2005, BS EN 1993-1-8 2005) and the results indicate that the predictions based on the proposed analytical model agree well with the simulation model.