End Plate Node Performance

Steel construction and Light-steel frame have been used widely in industrial and civil structures with the rapid development of city economy. Bolted end-plate connections are often being used in light-steel frame owing to their simplicity and economy of fabrication and erection, and the study about its behavior and design method is more and more being taken seriously.In light-steel portal frame design, end-plate connection is presumed to be complete stiffness connection, and that's not the case. This paper studied the warp and stiffness of end-plate connection, and studied how the actual stiffness of end-plate connection influence stiff frame's displacement, and some design improvements are proposed. A methodology based on finite element modeling is used to establish strong bolted end-plate connection calculation model, and solved the interface between end-plates question and how to add bolt pretension when imitating end-plate connection's elastic material characteristic. Through analyzing and comparing calculation results and experiment data, this paper summarized bolt force distribution, connection moment resistance, moment-rotation relationship and connection stiffness. On the basis of calculation results, the paper still analyzed several defects about end-plate connection calculation model existing in our country's current design criteria, furthermore, it proposed some improvements about end-plate connection calculation model according to bolt force distribution.