Local fracture-induced phenomena in steel moment frames

Abstract

Brittle fractures were observed at the welded beam-to-column connections of a number of steel moment flame buildings following the M6.7 1994 Northridge earthquake. Such fractures cause a rapid loss of connection strength and stiffness, as well as a sudden release of the strain energy stored by the connection at the time of fracture. Immediately following the fracture, a number of highly transient phenomena occur locally in the members adjacent to the connection, as well as globally in the structure as a whole. Four significant local phenomena were observed locally during shaking table tests of a one-third scale, two-story, one-bay steel moment flame in which quasi-brittle beam-to-column fractures occurred: (a) change in beam deflected shape; (b) change in moment distribution in adjacent members; (c) generation and propagation of elastic waves; and (d) initiation of dynamic modal response at the member level. Owing to the highly transient nature of these phenomena, they were observed to have second-order effects on overall behavior of the system. In comparison, the reductions in local strength and stiffness caused by the fractures had much more significant effects on system behavior. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.