Plastic damage distribution of beam–column joint consisting of H-shaped steel

To investigate the influence of panel zone section size on the plastic damage distribution of H-shaped beam–column joints, a cruciform beam–column joint composed of common beams, columns and panel zone was considered as the analytical model, in which the area ratio of flange-to-web and the section type of H-shaped steel column were considered as main parameters. Based on the force and moment balance at the centre of the panel zone, the rules of plastic damage of the beam–column joint were studied and the results were as follows: the H-shaped steel columns with wide flange, the formation of plastic hinge in the panel zone was prior to that of the column; the same result was obtained with middle or narrow flange H-shaped steel column, with the exception that the axial compression ratio of the column was equal to 0.6 and the height–width ratio of panel zone was equal to 2; when the axial compression ratio of column was less than or equal to 0.4 and the H-shaped steel column strength was 1–5 times of the panel zone strength, it may result in the difficulty in the construction of ‘strong panel zone’ structural treatment.