Parametric analysis of the structural response of steel base plate connections

The present paper aims to contribute to the parametric analysis of semirigi d steel base plate connections. The method is based on the theoretical resu lts of nonsmooth mechanics, which is a relatively new branch of mechanics i nitiated three decades ago and deals with problems from mechanics and/or st ructural analysis that involve generalizations of the gradient. The numeric al modelling of the structural response of a steel column base plate under static loading where unilateral contact with friction and yielding phenomen a are taken into account, could be considered as a typical problem that can be very effectively treated within such a theoretical framework. In partic ular, the respective stress states of the steel connection under static loa ding are calculated by taking into account the development of plastificatio n zones and the unilateral contact and friction effects on the interfaces b etween connection members. An effective two-dimensional finite element mode l, capable of describing the previously mentioned phenomena is constructed. The aforementioned model is a simplification of the respective three-dimen sional one and aims to reduce in a reliable way the huge computational effo rt required for the analysis of three-dimensional fine meshes of discretize d steel connections. A numerical application demonstrates the effectiveness and the applicability of the method altering two parameters, the base plat e thickness and the axial load of the model. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.