Analysis Of The Mechanical Properties And Economic Benefits Of Sleeve Reinforcrd T-joints

In recent years, with the continuous development and progress of social economy and human civilization, human requirements for their living and activity space has further enhanced, and long-span architectures can meet people’s various demand for large-scale theatrical performances, gatherings, etc. On the other hand, with the progress of science and technology, the emergence of plentiful new materials have made it possible for long-span architectures. Hollow round steel tubular joints are widely used at the train stations, convention centers, waiting halls, gymnasiums, offshore platforms, bridges and other large buildings due to its high strength, light weight and other remarkable advantages.Taking tubular T-joints as the research object, this paper created 17 finite element models in which 16 of them are reinforced joints with sleeves in contrast with another one normal joint. This paper imposed axial pressure and moment outside the plane respectively on the ends of the bracing tube, and based on the contrast analysis of finite element models simulation results the author came to the conclusion that adding sleeves to tubular T-joints has greatly enhanced their bearing capacity; that the sleeve can diffuse stresses to a broader region, thus ease the high stress concentration in the vicinity of the intersections; that increasing the thickness or height of the sleeve can enhance the bearing capacity of joints, while to increase its height is a more effective way.The wide use of sleeves in real projects must meet two prerequisites: they have to improve the mechanical characteristics of the traditional joints and produce good economic benefits. This paper adopted two indexes: steel incremental percentage and bearing capacity incremental percentage, analyzed the economic benefits and mechanical properties of sleeves, and found that a small a mount of economic investment can bring a sharp rise in the bearing capacity of the structure, thus the sleeve is a new reinforcement measure which can perform the strengthening function and also has considerable economic benefits. The research findings of this paper can provide theoretical support for the application of sleeves in real projects and valuable selection criteria of geometric parameters for technical staff.