This paper presents seismic cantilever monotonic and cyclic tests of speed-lock (boltless) beam-to-upright connections of adjustable pallet rack systems; the objective of the monotonic tests is to obtain the bounds that are employed to define the loading protocol of the subsequent cyclic tests. The beam-to-upright connections consist of welding the beam to an intermediate end-plate (L-shaped) that, in its turn, is linked to the upright through a hooked assembly. The performed experiments investigate the connections hysteretic behavior, as it contributes to the rack lateral strength, stiffness, and ductility. More precisely, the main objective of this research is to propose a new strengthened design of the weld beads geometric configuration. This design is oriented for the connection failure not to arise in the weld, but the hooked assembly. This shift is expected to increase the connection ductility; in this sense, specimens with traditional and novel weld geometric designs are tested. In most of the tests performed, the results confirm that the new weld design leads to more ductile failure modes; preliminary evaluations state that the ductility increase might be sufficient to absorb most of the input seismic energy. On the other hand, tests are conducted according to two loading protocols: the traditional one by following European regulations and a new strategy proposed by Prof. Castiglioni accounting for the influence of gravity loads. Comparison between their results shows that the Castiglioni approach is more demanding and seems to reproduce the actual seismic behavior of racks better.

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This paper is the result of both experimental and numeric analyses on pallet rack components. Two cyclic testing protocols for beam‐end connectors of adjustable racking systems are compared; such experiments are named as “code type” and “Castiglioni”. Both protocols share the same test mock‐up: an assembly of a doubly‐pinned upright segment with a cantilever beam specimen. These tests consist in an up‐to‐failure increasing push‐pull process at the free beam end. In the “code type” test, the imposed displacement loops are centered around zero; conversely, in the “Castiglioni” tests, both upward and downward displacement segment runs are centered around a vertical static equilibrium situation (to take the gravitational load into account). The “code type” test is expected to result in a higher number of cycles than the “Castiglioni” one because of the two following features of the latter: (i) the gravitational load is always present, thus resulting in a higher demanding test, and (ii) the failure point is precisely predefined and usually produced before the total breakdown. This paper describes and compares experiments using both protocols. Additionally, these tests are numerically simulated.

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