Behavior and design of square hollow section (SHS) support member directly welded to the face plate of steel-plate composite (SC) wall connection

Abstract

This paper presents the study on the performance and design of square hollow section (SHS) support member - SC wall connections under tension and bending loading cases. The benchmark finite element model (FEM) was developed and validated with experimental results. An extensive parametric study of 400 models was conducted to investigate the performance of the connections with a wide range of parameter matrix including support member connected position, SHS height, face plate thickness, loading case of support member and axial compression ratio on the SC wall. Two basic failure modes were observed and clearly defined in the SHS support member-SC wall connections, namely face plate yielding and face plate bulging. It can be observed that face plate thickness and section height are the most important parameters, while axial compression ratio has negligible effect on the behavior of SHS support member – SC wall connections. The connections at the CP4 connected position showed different capacities from those at other connected positions. Based on the available data, design methods for face plate yielding and face plate bulging capacities, as well as internal stud tension force to applied external load ratio, were proposed under tension and bending loading cases.