Author(s)

Mahmoud Yahyai, Mohsen Behzadpoori, Amir Saedi Daryan, Ahmad Baleh Moghadas

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Recent structural collapses caused by fire have focused attention on research concerning fire safety in building design. Steel connections are an important component of any structural steel building as they provide links between the principal structural members. Considering the importance of this matter this paper describes a spring-stiffness model developed to predict the behavior of bolted angle connections bare-steel joints at elevated temperature. The joint components are considered as springs with predefined mechanical properties i.e. stiffness and strength. The elevated temperature joint’s response can be predicted by assem-bling the stiffness of the components which are assumed to degrade with increasing temperature based on the recommendations presented in the design parameters code. Comparison of the results from the model with existing experimental data showed good agreement. The proposed model can be easily modified to describe the elevated temperature behavior of other types of joint as well as joints under large rotations.

Bolted Connection, Elevated-Temperature, Fire, Spring-Stiffness Model, Rotation-Temperature Curves, Moment-Rotation Curves

M. Yahyai, M. Behzadpoori, A. Daryan and A. Moghadas, "The Simple Model for Bolted Connections in Fire," Engineering, Vol. 3 No. 9, 2011, pp. 865-875. doi: 10.4236/eng.2011.39106.