Steel Rack Connections: Identification of Most Influential Factors and a Comparison of Stiffness Design Methods

Abstract

Steel pallet rack (SPR) beam-to-column connections (BCCs) are largely responsible to avoid the sway failure of frames in the down-aisle direction. The overall geometry of beam end connectors commercially used in SPR BCCs is different and does not allow a generalized analytic approach for all types of beam end connectors; however, identifying the effects of the configuration, profile and sizes of the connection components could be the suitable approach for the practical design engineers in order to predict the generalized behavior of any SPR BCC. This paper describes the experimental behavior of SPR BCCs tested using a double cantilever test set-up. Eight sets of specimens were identified based on the variation in column thickness, beam depth and number of tabs in the beam end connector in order to investigate the most influential factors affecting the connection performance. Four tests were repeatedly performed for each set to bring uniformity to the results taking the total number of tests to thirty-two. The moment-rotation (M-θ) behavior, load-strain relationship, major failure modes and the influence of selected parameters on connection performance were investigated. A comparative study to calculate the connection stiffness was carried out using the initial stiffness method, the slope to half-ultimate moment method and the equal area method. In order to find out the more appropriate method, the mean stiffness of all the tested connections and the variance in values of mean stiffness according to all three methods were calculated. The calculation of connection stiffness by means of the initial stiffness method is considered to overestimate the values when compared to the other two methods. The equal area method provided more consistent values of stiffness and lowest variance in the data set as compared to the other two methods.

Behavior of steel storage pallet racking connection - A review

“…It also bring solutions to guarantee the optimum exploitation of resources, and foster more sustainable use of assets (Gerami et al 2008, Gholhaki et al 2008, Haddad 2008, Kheyroddin et al 2008, Sharbatdar et al 2008, Andalib et al 2018, Paknahad et al 2018, therefore, majority of studies have been conducted to determine the preference for familiarity or preference for novelty of structures (Ardalan et al 2009, Mohammadhassani et al 2013, 2014a, b, Mola-Abasi et al 2013, Eslami et al 2014, Toghroli et al 2014, Shahabi et al 2016, Toghroli et al 2018a. Accordingly, few studies are on the cold-form beamto-column connections (Mohammadhassani et al 2012, Sohel et al 2012, Talaiekhozani et al 2014, Zhao et al 2014, El Kadi and Kiymaz 2015, Shah et al 2015, Bao et al 2016, Shah et al 2016a, b, c, Bertocci et al 2017, El Kadi et al 2017 Corresponding author, Ph.D., E-mail: BuiTienDieu@gmail.com 2017a, Li et al 2017, Sarangapani and Ganguli 2017, Zhao et al 2017, Dai et al 2018, while few others are on the connections of C-Channel profile with bolted condition. The number of studies on cold-form profile for steel pallet racking connection with lugged ( Fig.…”

Analysis of the Seismic Performance of a Two‐Span Specially Shaped Column Frame

“…Specially shaped columns include L-shaped columns, T-shaped columns, and columns with crossshaped cross sections, amongst which columns with crossshaped cross sections have been the most applied. Specially shaped columns effectively avoid obvious structural columns within the building, make the layout of the entire building more beautiful, and effectively increase the usable area within the building [7][8][9]. However, academic verification of theories relating to specially shaped column structures currently is scarce in China.…”

Cross-aisle stiffness analysis of industrial welded cold-formed steel rack upright frames

“…Several authors have studied the nonlinear behaviour of beamupright connections, as well as how to model them (See Refs. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]). In the cross-aisle direction, stability relies on the stiffness of the upright frames.…”