Vierendeel joints in the circular hollow sections of high strength steel subjected to brace moment and chord compressive loadings

Abstract

The Vierendeel joints used in buildings and highway bridges as well as offshore platforms are investigated by both the experimental approach and finite element method. A number of full scale specimens using new high strength steel (i.e., tensile strength of 600 MPa) are tested under cyclic quasi-static loadings to understand their strengths, rotational stiffness characteristics, and failure modes. The nonlinear three-dimensional finite element models are also constructed to verify the experimental results. The present experimental results are seen to closely agree with those from finite element analysis as well as theoretical predictions such as AISC and CIDEC equations.