This paper explores an alternative for strengthening shear‐deficient beams by fixing cold‐formed stiffeners with non‐welded joints at buckling‐prone regions. The usage of welds may not be suitable in slender beams as it introduces residual stresses and local distortion on the web. The cold‐formed stiffeners are disposed in diagonal orientation and its corrugate‐shaped geometry with high moment of inertia improves the out‐of‐plane stiffness of the beam web. The assessment of this method was performed in an experimental campaign which included three‐point bending tests of four beams. In two specimens, the cold‐formed stiffeners were fixed on the web by means of hybrid bonded‐bolted joints. Additionally, two control specimens were tested: a beam without diagonal stiffeners and a beam with diagonal welded‐steel plate.

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The seismic design of dissipative beam‐to‐column steel joints is currently allowed in Eurocode EN1998 only when supported by tests due to the lack of reliable models for predicting their behaviour under cyclic conditions. On the other hand, the well‐known component method coded in EN 1993‐1‐8 (EC3‐1‐8) only applies to monotonic response of the joints. In this paper, an extension of this method, cyclic component method (CCM), is presented, which was developed and implemented for cyclic conditions in the scope of the research project EQUALJOINTS. The CCM was developed to predict the joints moment‐rotation behaviour for a wide range of joint configurations by properly combining cyclic force‐elongation behaviour of relevant components using the Modified Richard‐Abbott model. The step‐by‐step development and implementation of the CCM addresses (i) widespan variety of joint configurations and (ii) is fully compatible with the prescriptions in EC3‐1‐8. An example of application of the method is shown for an end‐plate beam‐to‐column steel beam‐to‐column joint, highlighting the level of accuracy achieved so far in the simulations of the cyclic behaviour of joints. The work performed so far shows promising results and good perspectives for new developments, which are identified making use of evidence from the results of the application example.