A new series of full-scale tests on steel frames with semi-rigid connections

摘要

The paper presents a test series consisting of six single-bay,two-storey frames,five of them tested under cyclic quasi-static loading,and one,under proportionaly increasing loading.The connections between beams and columns are semi-rigid and partial strength,and have been designed to exhibit the performance of a plastic hinge with sufficiently large rotation capacity for a plastic mechanism to occur.The purpose of the tests was (i) to examine the behaviour of the frame as a whole,and (ii) to examine the behaviour of such connections when they form part of a frame.The paper puts an emphasis on the methods used during testing,including load histories,loading system and measuring devices.Of particular importance is a sspecifically designed device by which absolute rotations of cross-sections have been measured.The paper also presents some generic results concerning the frame behaviour under the loads applied.