Objective
The project concerns the analysis of the behaviour of civil engineering steel structures, of the moment resisting category, under earthquake loads. The objective is to implement in such an analysis a quantitative reference to the failure of connections in terms of low cycle fatigue, considering the duration of the earthquake and the corresponding number of cycles supported in dissipative (plastic) zones.
The principal activities of the project are as follows:
Full size testing of beam to column connections.
Eight typologies of beam to column connections have been identified as covering a wide range of common
structural applications in steel construction and will be analyzed. Testing on welds.
The problem will be specifically addressed, both for fillet and butt welds, by testing specimens of the two joint
typologies.
Design of the reference steel frame building structure and related numerical analyses.
A two-story industrial/office building will be designed. A preliminary linear-elastic design stress-analysis will
be carried out according to Eurocode 3 (Steel structures) and Eurocode 8 (Constructions in seismic zones)
considering the eight typlologies of beam to column connections previously tested. A numerical non-linear
analysis under the effect of the earthquake will be performed considering four beam to column connections
typologies selected among the eight tested. Finally, out of the four connections experimentally investigated and
numerically examined through the non-linear analysis, one will be selected as of special interest.
Pseudo-dynamic testing of a steel frame building structure.
A one bay prototype of the frame, incorporating the selected connection, will be built and tested to evaluate the
earthquake induced behaviour of the building. The seismic action will be simulated through the pseudodynamic
technique.
Shaking table testing of a steel frame building structure.
In this work task the seismic action will be simulated through the shaking table technique that enables to apply
to the specimen the real seismic dynamic loads both in terms of amplitude, frequency content and their
distribution on the structure (distributed inertial loads instead of concentrated forces used in the pseudodynamic
technique), providing additional complementary data with respect to the pseudodynamic methodology.
Interpretation of experimental results, comparison between experimental and numerical results and updating of
numerical analyses.
The comparison between numerical and experimental results will provide terms to revise the numerical
modelling, both linear and non-linear, and an updating of the numerical analyses will be performed.
The main deliverables of this research project are: definition of practical rules for the design of the connections
studied in the research. This includes welding specification in relation with the number of plastic fatigue cycles
expected, which are a characteristic of the region where a structure is to be built; identification of evidences
to support or modify the q factors presently proposed in Eurocode 8. The research results, especially those in
terms of fatigue curves, will be used to make the difference between the design of a structure in a region where
only small duration earthquakes, bringing few fatigue cycles, can be expected and the design of a similar
structure in another region where long duration earthquakes, involving many fatigue cycles, are a reality.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologycivil engineering
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologyseismology
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsnumerical analysis
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
24068 Seriate
Italy