Study on Partially Restrained Connections of Cold Form Steel Structures

The study of connections in any structure is of primary importance because, it is always desirable the structural member to fail first instead of the connection. If the structural connection fails before the failure of the member it is always a brittle failure and catastrophic. Present study is focused out to determine the structural performances of various beam–columns with bolted moment connections on cold formed light gauge steel sections by analytical, FEM analysis and experimental tests. The analysis included four types of beam column connections with gusset plate. The number of bolts required for basic connection are determined from BS 5950-5 1998.Based on proposed four types of connection configuration, they are modeled in pro-e. Further, this modeled connection is analyzed in hypermesh, then experimental test have been carried out on the same connections. The relations between moment-rotation, moment resistance, model factor and various modes of failure were observed. From the experimental and FEM analysis it has been observed that there is always torsional buckling failure of beam section and distortion of gusset plate and from result model factor of proposed model is 0.731 and moment resistance of connection archives 32% to that of moment resistance of cold form steel section.