In the past few decades, semi-rigid connections have been studied extensively; several major international steel structure design specifications have incorporated this component into their own systems. However, there is still no appropriate way to integrate the semi-rigid joint design into the structural design more efficiently. The forward design method of introducing joint characteristics into the frame by predetermining joint details requires considerable effort to trial massive amounts of variables, which is undoubtedly a nightmare for those structures composed of thousands of members and joints. In this paper, a feasible method for the reversed design of semi-rigid steel frames has been developed. Being similar to the traditional one, the structural design is still divided into member design and joint design. In the member design phase, a joint is abstracted as a performance parameter and its details are no longer concerned. Then, in the joint design phase, the joint details can be reconstructed subject to the joint required performance by using the optimization algorithm. Throughout the process, engineers simply tune the desired properties of the joins rather than their construction geometry, which results in clearer tuning direction and improved solution efficiency. In addition, determining how to choose a good, required connection stiffness as the starting design is discussed and recommendations are given. Finally, two examples are solved to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
With decades of research, semi-rigid beam-to-column connections have been widely accepted. However, most studies have been restricted to the local connection level, leaving system-oriented analysis and design methods with a meager investigation, which leads to the fact that the active use of semi-rigid connections in practice is rare. This study aims to provide a system-level design method to bridge the gap between element and connection design, and the two main contributions are to propose a method for designing semi-rigid steel frames by pre-establishing a performance-based connection database and to formulate refined classification criteria for connection performance levels. In this method, the frame design is transformed into finding an appropriate matching of performance requirements between elements and connections. The classification criteria for connection performance levels are based on the assumption that the structural responses (stability, resistance, and deformation) are only slightly affected by the properties of connections within the same level. The emphasis is on the rotational stiffness and moment resistance of the connection. Finally, the results of examples indicate that the connection database is portable and can be applied to various frames, avoiding the repetitive design for connections in different projects. In addition, tuning the performance requirements of the connection can greatly reduce the number of design variables compared to tuning its geometry, and more importantly, it provides designers with a clearer update path, which can significantly shorten the process of trial-and-error and quickly arrive at the final design.
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