STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW ON THE DESIGN OF BEAM-TO-COLUMN CONNECTIONS FOR PULTRUDED FRAMES

A review and commentary is presented on the research to understand and develop practical beam-to-column connections for pultruded frames. Ex perimental moment-rotation curves for isolated connections are present ed and their properties used in a commentary on frame design. Current design recommendations for pinned connections are given, with reasons why research is still necessary to understand their complete structura l behaviour, and that of practical semi-rigid connections. The paper i ntroduces a new analytical method to predict the static behaviour of l inear elastic plane frames having real connections, second-order defle ctions and shear deformable members. The beam-line method and the fram e analysis are used to show the potential benefits of treating frame d esign as semi-rigid. Results using these analytical models are shown t o provide useful information in our quest to optimize the performance of semi-rigid connections and frames. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.