Seismic Behavior of Steel Column Base with Slip-Friction Connections

Abstract

Traditional rigid column base connections are damaged to different degrees after an earthquake and the damage is generally nonrecoverable. Thus, the cost of repairing or dismantling is quite high. A new type of slip-friction column base connection is proposed in this paper, which aims to replace the yielding energy dissipation of the traditional column base connection by the sliding friction energy dissipation between the arc endplates, thus achieving the design objective of damage-free energy dissipation. Finite element simulation was conducted to study the hysteretic performance of the proposed connections considering different axial compression ratios. The research indicates that both kinds of the proposed connections show good energy dissipation behavior and the increase of axial compression force can increase the energy dissipation ability. It also shows that the two kinds of connections can achieve the objective of damage-free energy dissipation. For the proposed connection, future research is still needed such as corresponding tests in the laboratory, the effect of the connection on the whole structure, and the re-centering systems for the connections.

Experimental Study on Seismic Behavior of Steel Column Base Connections with Arc End-Plates Slip-Friction

“…The width (W) of the arc end-plate is 550 mm, the thickness of the arc end-plate is 25 mm and the inner radius (R) is approximately 0.7 H (H is the height of the steel column section, i.e., 350 mm). The slip performance of the column base connection is most stable when the radius of the arc end-plate is 0.7 H [15,16]. The length of the rectangular bolt hole in the upper arc end-plate is 45 mm (Figure 4).…”

“…The frictional load generated between the column end and the friction plate dissipates energy to achieve a low and lossless structure. Li et al [15,16] proposed a new sliding frictional column base connection that achieves a lossless performance of the structure by replacing the energy dissipated by the conventional column base connection with the frictional dissipation between the curved end plates at the column end.…”

“…Based on the previous studies [15,16], an innovative kind of steel column base connection with arc end-plates slip-friction was proposed (in Figure 1) to achieve damage-free energy dissipation. This column base connection is composed of the steel column, upper and lower arc end-plates, high-strength bolts, top plate, and base plate.…”