Cyclic behaviour of welded stiffened beam-to-column joints – experimental tests

Sixteen cyclic tests on full-strength welded stiffened beam-to-column joints were carried out to study their seismic performance. High-strength steel (HSS) was used for composite columns acting as non-dissipative elastic members and mild carbon steel (MCS) for the beams acting as dissipative members. Two types of welded full-strength connections were studied: rib-stiffened and cover-plate connections. Additional parameters in the study were: different cyclic loadings and the presence of axial force in the column. Experimental results revealed the good behaviour of the joints in terms of relocation of inelastic action away from the face of the beam-to-column connection into the beam section, with correspondingly large ductility, low-cycle fatigue resistance and minimization of damage in the column.