Seismic performance evaluation of a novel bolted flush end-plate beam splice connection

This paper describes a three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) model developed to assess the seismic behaviour of a novel prefabricated beam-to-beam connection termed a double-bolted flush end-plate beam (DBFEB) splice connection under cyclic loading. The seismic response was analysed and evaluated in terms of the hysteretic behaviour, rigidity, resistance degradation, ductility, energy dissipation capacity and equivalent damping coefficient. It is shown that the required performance can be achieved by controlling the end-plate thickness as well as the bolt grade and diameter; these parameters were therefore chosen as the key geometric variables investigated here for parametric study. Also this type of new connection provided an appropriate level of strength and stiffness and can be categorised as a semi-rigid connection based on Eurocode 3, as investigated in the previous work published by the authors. Subsequently, a bilinear simplified hysteretic moment–rotation (M–θ) model for the DBFEB connection was proposed and its defining parameters were obtained by conducting several parametric analyses on the results of the 45 most proportional 3D FE model specimens of this type of connection that were selected for the regression analysis.