COMPARISON OF MOMENT CONNECTIONS REINFORCED WITH

VARIOUS VERTICAL RIB PLATES

MAITHILI PATIL a, UTTAM AWARI b and SWATI KULKARNIb

a
Post Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, AISSMS, Pune 411001, India,
E-mail: patilrt30@gmail.com
b
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, AISSMS, Pune 411001, India ,
E-mail: ura_civil@yahoo.co.in
b
Associate Professor, Department of Applied Science and General Engineering , AIT, Pune
411015, India , E-mail:swatiakulkarni@gmail.com

ABSTRACT— This study presents the behaviour of beam-column welded moment

connection used in steel moment resisting frame when reinforced with three different
vertical ribs and their comparative study. The Finite Element Analysis(FEA) was
performed to elucidate behaviour of 10 strong axis welded beam-column
unreinforced connection as well as connection strengthened by three different types
of ribs i.e. “Triangular rib”, modified triangular rib mentioned as “Trapezoidal rib”
& modified rib with an extension called “Lengthened rib”. The analytical results
show that all three ribs are good enough to reduce the stress concentration near the
beam-column weld. The Triangular and Lengthened rib reduces stress concentration
more effectively as compared to Trapezoidal rib. While lengthened rib has an
advantage to avoid tearing of beam flange at the end of rib

Keywords — Strengthened connection, Lengthened rib, Triangular Rib, FEA

INTRODUCTION
Till Northridge (1994) and Kobe (1995) earthquake ‘Pre-Northridge Connection’
was assumed to be sufficiently ductile to withstand during earthquakes. But wide
variety of brittle fracture was observed ranging from small cracks to complete
damage of the connection post these earthquakes. As a result, numerous analytical
and experimental programs have been performed to enhance the connection
performance [1-2]. Three general approaches were followed in improving
connection detail: A) Improving unreinforced connections /toughening schemes, B)
Strengthening approach: strengthening connection by addition of cover plates, ribs
or haunches. C) Weakening approach: locally weakening the beam away from the
column face by reduced beam section or slotted web [3-7].
Use of vertical rib plates (Fig.1A) to improve the seismic performance of steel
moment connections was one of the strengthening approaches. These ribs generally
beam flanges at the column face are used to reduce the stresses at the beam flange
groove weld and to move the critical section away from the column face.
The connection with triangular rib was studied experimentally and analytically by
various researchers like Lee C H [8], Lee et al. [9] and Chen et al. [10] & it is
observed that the rib-reinforced connection can reduce the stress concentration in the
access hole region as well as the stress demand in the beam CJP groove weld.

Fig. 1: Strengthened Connection, A) Rib, B) Lengthened flange rib

Chen et al. [11] proposed another rib type shown in Fig. 1B. Chen et al. [12] further,
mentioned that a single lengthened rib is effective to be used as ductile connection.
It is observed that very limited study of rib reinforced connections is conducted with
respect to Indian Profiles. The current study shows the behaviour of beam-column
welded moment connection, when reinforced with three different vertical ribs and
their comparative study. Finite Element Analysis was carried out for ten number of
beam-column steel moment connections reinforced with “Triangular rib”, modified
triangular rib mentioned as “Trapezoidal rib” & modified rib with an extension
called “Lengthened rib”.

METHODOLOGY
Ten number of welded steel beam-column moment resisting connections were
investigated using Finite Element Analysis in ANSYS 16.0 Workbench [13]. The
single rib was considered to be welded at the centreline of beam at bottom and top
flange of the beam. Following three types of ribs were considered-
1. Simple Triangular Rib - The name suggests this is simple triangular shaped rib
shown in Fig. 2A. 2. Trapezoidal Rib (Modified triangular Rib) - This is modified
triangular rib in which short edge at the end of triangular rib is added to the geometry.
As it seems as a trapezoidal geometry for convenience it is mentioned as trapezoidal
rib in present study, Fig. 2B. 3. Lengthened rib- This is a modified rib with an
extension shown in Fig 2C. Unlike typical triangular rib plates, the lengthened rib
consists of three parts, which are a main reinforced part, a curved part, and an
extension. The curved part is intended to provide a smooth transition from the main
reinforced part of the rib to the rib extension, and to prevent undercutting of the rib
plate during manufacture and possible crack initiation.

Fig.2: A)Triangular rib, B) Trapezoidal rib, C) Lengthened rib

SPECIMEN DETAILS
The columns used were Wide Parallel Flange Sections (WPB) while the beams are
Narrow Parallel Flange Beam Sections (NPB) as per IS 12778[14]. All the columns
and beams were of Grade Fe 490, having yield strength = 350MPa.
Table 1 shows the specimen details. The specimens are named as Reinforced
Connection (RC) RC1 to RC10. The span of beam from centre of column was
considered to be 3030mm while height of column was 3000mm. The geometry of
lengthened rib was provided as per Patent No: US 6,427,393 B1 [15] & Chen et al.
[11]. The dimensions of lengthened rib are shown below Table 2. For triangular and
trapezoidal type of rib, the base of rib was provided half the depth of beam while
base to height ratio is maintained as two to one. Cross sectional dimensions of the
ribs are presented in Table.2. The thickness for the triangular and trapezoidal rib is
kept same as lengthened rib.
Table 1: Properties of sections used for beam and column
Specimen No Column WPB in ‘mm’ Beam NPB in ‘mm’
RC-1 668 305 21 40 760 270 14.4 21.6
RC-2 620 305 21 40 709 250 14.5 23.5
RC-3 572 305 21 40 695 250 11.5 16.5
RC-4 524 305 21 40 600 250 12 19
RC-5 478 305 21 40 550 210 11.1 17.2
RC-6 432 305 21 40 497 200 8.4 14.5
RC-7 395 305 21 40 450 190 9.4 14.6
RC-8 377 305 21 40 404 182 9.7 15.5
RC-9 359 305 21 40 364 172 9.4 14.7
RC-10 340 305 21 39 360 170 8 12.7

Table 2 Dimensions of Ribs

Triangular Trapezoidal Lengthened
Specimen
b h b h d a b c d
RC-1 750 190 750 190 25 750 190 165 25
RC-2 725 180 725 180 25 725 180 155 25
RC-3 700 173.75 700 173.75 25 700 173.75 148.75 25
RC-4 675 150 675 150 25 675 150 125 25
RC-5 650 137.5 650 137.5 25 650 137.5 112.5 25
RC-6 625 124.25 625 124.25 25 625 124.25 99.25 25
RC-7 600 140 600 140 25 600 140 115 25
RC-8 575 135 575 135 25 575 135 110 25
RC-9 550 120 550 120 25 550 120 95 25
RC-10 525 117 525 117 25 525 117 92 25

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

An external beam-to-column subassamblages are assumed for analysis. The
fundamental assumptions made to idealize steel mechanical properties are: Young’s
modulus of 2×105 MPa, Poisson’s ratio of 0.3 and yield stress = 350 MPa, hinged
supports at both ends of column and at the joint beam to column element connection
is configured as fully restrained. Multi-linear stress strain curve are input directly as
element material property for static analysis. The element SOLID 45 from ANSYS
element library was used. For an example – Fig.3 shows the generated mesh of
connection RC-1 with triangular rib. Loads were applied to the tip of the beam
following standard SAC loading history [16]. The von-Mises stress distribution is
observed for the models.

Fig. 3: Three dimensional Finite Element Mesh

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

To check the stress reduction at the connection the unreinforced connection was also
modelled same as the reinforced connection. The results form analysis i.e. stress
values in MPa for 3 models are shown below in Table 3.

Table 4.1 Maximum Stresses (MPa) at column face in the beam and at rib tip
Specimen Without Rib Triangular Trapezoidal Lengthened
RC-1 507.39 351.12 355.96 351.1
RC-6 446.58 350.85 349.73 348.76
RC-10 440.01 248.9 248.09 247.39

The comparative study has been done to check the efficiency of the rib. For an
example, following are figures showing RC1 connection with all four condition i.e.
connection without rib and strengthened with three types of ribs. Fig.4A, shows the
simple unreinforced column beam connection, in which the maximum stresses
occurs at the column-beam interface which results in brittle failure of the connection.
Fig. 4B, shows the connection strengthened with lengthened rib for RC1, in which it
is observed that the maximum stresses occurs at the front part of the rib extension
i.e. in main reinforcement. This rib efficiently shifts the maximum stresses away
from column face. Fig. 4C & D, shows the connection strengthened with trapezoidal
rib and triangular rib respectively, which also satisfies the required condition to form
the plastic hinge away from column face
 A) B)

C) D)
Fig. 4: connection reinforced: A) without rib, B) with lengthened rib, C)
trapezoidal rib, D) with triangular rib
Results of three connections as a sample to get an idea of stresses for four different
conditions are presented in graphical format in Figure 5. The graph shows the
comparison between stresses occurred at the connection using different rib
reinforced connection and stresses at unreinforced connection. From the graph it is
noted that lengthened rib reduces more stress concentration at connection followed
by triangular rib and trapezoidal rib.
LENGTHENED RIB TRAPEZOIDAL RIB
TRIANGULAR RIB WITHOUT RIB
355.96 394.9 354.62 378.7 356.38 451.15
351.1 351.12 349.94 350.2 352.1 352.58

RC1 RC2 RC3

Fig. 5: Stresses at connections for different conditions

CONCLUSIONS
Based on analytical studies following important conclusions are made-
1. Study shows that the Parallel flange steel sections beam-column connection
reinforced using different ribs behaves significantly good, this strategy can be
used for Indian steel sections.
2. Finite element analysis proved that, on the basis of stresses all the three types of
rib reinforced connection can reduce the stress concentration near column face
and forms desired plastic hinge at the beam section
3. From the graphical representation of maximum stresses at connection shows that
lengthened and triangular rib gives approximately same amount of reduction in
stresses, but as lengthened rib has advantage to avoid the tearing of beam flange
at rib tip, study suggests use of lengthen rib
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