Valorisation of Knowledge for European Prequalified Steel Joints: The Equaljoints-Plus Project

Abstract

Within the previous RFCS project EQUALJOINTS (RFSR-CT-2013-00021), seismic prequalification criteria of steel joints have been developed. The EQUALJOINTS-PLUS project aims at the valorisation, the dissemination and the extension of the developed prequalification criteria for practical applications to a wide audience (i.e. academic institutions, Engineers and architects, construction companies, steel producers). The main objectives of the project are the following: to collect and organize informative material concerning the prequalified joint typologies: informative documents will be prepared in 12 languages (English, Spanish, and Slovenian), to develop pre-normative design recommendations of seismically qualified joints on the basis of results from Equaljoints project, to develop design guidelines in order to design steel structures accounting for the type of joints and their relevant nonlinear response, to develop a software and an app for mobile to predict the inelastic response of joints, to organize seminars and workshops in EU countries and the USA for disseminating the gained knowledge, to create a web site with free access to the users in order to promote the obtained results, to create a You-Tube channel to make available the videos of the experimental tests and simulations to show the evolution of damage pattern.

Behavior of steel building structures subjected to strong and benchmark seismic actions: An overview of damage from the observations of the last 40 years

“…The aforementioned discussion is associated with the ductility concept, which accepts a high level of inelastic deformation, namely a high level of damage. Nowadays, we can distinguish two new design trends: (i) a new concept of low-damage beam-tocolumn connections, as accepted and widely used in the Christchurch reconstruction [1,62], and (ii) a design philosophy of connections free of damage [83] and prequalification of connections (applicable to Europe [84,85]). In practice, the seismic design should balance stiffness, strength, ductility, and repairability according to seismicity, geotechnical conditions, building importance, cost of business interruption, and construction budget.…”

Seismic Design and Performance Assessment of Steel Frames Considering Joints' Behaviour

“…Ductile joints are crucial in seismic resistant steel structures due to their role in absorbing and dissipating energy in addition to dampening vibrations. In line with this, the pre-normative research project EQUALJOINTS [3] implemented an additional classification of joints termed "equal strength" -that ranges between full and partial strength connections. Accordingly, joints have been classified based on strength as either weak, equal or full strength, while the web panel is classified as either weak, balanced or strong.…”