Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 1934-1047 (2010)
TENSILE BEHAVIOR OF WELDED TEE END CONNECTION
FOR CIRCULAR HOLLOW MEMBERS
Vittorio Nascè 1 and Francesco Tondolo 2,*
1 Full Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Department of structural and Geotechnical Engineering, corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
2,* Research Assistant, Politecnico di Torino, Department of structural and Geotechnical Engineering, corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
*(Corresponding author: E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Received: 8 August 2010; Revised: 23 September 2010; Accepted: 2 October 2010
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ABSTRACT
The structural behavior of welded tee end connections used for circular hollow sections (CHS), depends on the number and the position of the tee webs. International specifications, such as ANSI/AICS and CIDECT Design Guide, provide design rules for joints made with one or two parallel tee webs, whereas the use of cross tee webs is not taken into consideration. However, the performance of such extensively employed connections cannot directly be referred to that of single tee web connection, as confirmed by the uniaxial tensile tests presented in this paper. A numerical model, based on a nonlinear Finite Element approach, is also introduced to show the influence of some geometrical parameters on the structural efficiency of the joints. As a result, a possible extension of the current design rules for CHS connections is also suggested.
KEYWORDS
Circular Hollow Section, Welded Tee End Connection, Uniaxial Tensile Test, FEM Analysis, Code Formulation
REFERENCES
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