Numerical Analysis Of Steel Tubular Joints

With the advantages of beauty, lightness and lower usage of steel amount, steel tubular structures have got a wide application in China now. The study on ultimate strength of steel tubular joints is very important to the design of steel tubular structures. Because of the influence of the behavior of joints and various complicated geometric shape, not only material and geometrical nonlinear but also the inelastic property of joints should be included in the analysis regarding the ultimate strength of tubular joints.An inelastic and nonlinear finite element analysis of steel tubular joints had been completed with the finite element program named Patran and Nastran. The full loading-displacement path had been traced, and the ultimate strength of the tubular joints had been determined. Based on a series of numerical analysis of steel tubular T-joints, Y-joints and K-joints of various geometric parameters, the effect of the various geometric parameters on ultimate strength had been investigated. The method of the reinforce joints had been offered. In order to make the analysis results more precise , a lot of factors including grid dimension, boundary condition and material properties were considered in the analysis.