Investigation of the effects of bolt diameter and end-plate thickness on the capacity and failure modes of end-plated beam to-column connections

Abstract

End-plated connections are frequently preferred in beam-to-column connections due to their advantages of high quality and fast assembly. The capacity of the end-plated connections depends on many parameters including the thickness of end-plate and bolt diameter. A comprehensive numerical parametric study was conducted in order to investigate the effects of these parameters on the capacity of the end-plated connections using the finite element tool, ABAQUS. The results of the numerical study were compared with the prediction of Eurocode provision in terms of the capacity and failure mode. The results showed that Eurocode accurately captures the failure modes and predicts the capacity of the connection except for thin plates with high accuracy. However, Eurocode provision significantly underestimated the capacity of the thin-plated extended end-plated connections.