A Study on the Lower Flanges Fracture of Endplate Bolted Connection
The quasi-static tests on the endplate bolted connections of the new structure system consisting of SCC beam and CCSHRC column are briefly introduced in this paper. Meanwhile, the 3-D solid finite element models of the connections with pre-existing cracks in the lower flange’s high stress fields are set up by ANSYS. The material nonlinearities of concrete, steel and bars, together with the contact between the endplate and column surface are all considered in the model. With the transverse load applied on top of columns, the fracture parameters are calculated by APDL. The results indicate that the opening mode crack will happen mainly. When the pre-existing crack length is 2.50mm and the inter-storey drift is less than 6mm, the stress intensity factor values agree well with the converting values derived from J-integral and the crack tip fields are in elastic state. The J values are highly influenced by the pre-existing crack length, while seldom influenced by the concrete compression strength. Moreover, the J-integral have the trend to sharply increase when the pre-existing crack length is larger than 0.61mm, and the pre-existing crack will grow during loading when its length is larger than 1.35mm.