Protected Steel and Composite Connections: Simulation of the Mechanical Behaviour of Steel and Composite Connections Protected by Intumescent Coating in Fire

Actual developments in numerical simulations of the structural behaviour in fire situation are focussed on taking into consideration the interaction of all structural members in a global approach. Therefore it is necessary to simulate the load bearing behaviour of connections. With this motivation, the authors conducted experiments and thermal FE-simulations on two different connection types. In this paper, the accompanying mechanical FE-simulations of both investigated connection types will be described. The joints are defined as an end plate connection in a steel structure and a fin plate connection in a composite structure. Besides the validation of the numerical models, the results of the described investigations show that it is possible to activate a significant moment resistance within fin plate connections of composite structures. The main requirement for this activation is sufficient reinforcement strength.