Experimental Study and Finite Element Analysis of Hysteretic Behavior of End-plate Connection Semi-Rigid Space Steel Frames

To investigate the seismic behavior of end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frames, three 1/4-scale specimens were tested under cyclic load. Finite element analysis which took initial geometric imperfections into consideration was also conducted, and the results conform to experimental results. The failure modes, hysteretic behavior, deformation capacity and energy-dissipation capacity of the end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frame have been explicated in this paper. The investigation in this paper indicates that: (1) the end-plate connection semi-rigid space steel frames exhibit full hysteretic loops under horizontal cyclic load and have good ductility as well, indicating that this kind of frames can satisfy the deformation demand in strong earthquakes. (2) Plastic hinges formed at beam ends, and the stress and deformation amplitudes of joint-panels were smaller than those of column base and beam ends. It shows that this kind of frames satisfy the design principle “strong column weak beam, strong joint weak component”.