ABSTRACT:

This paper presents first recent results on some parametric studies on muItiplanar K-joints with gap made of rectangular hollow sections. In several figures, the determination of a suitable model is shown. Comparisons between tests and calculations confirm the procedure.

INTRODUCTION

Nearly all the tests on the fatigue behaviour of hollow section joints published the last few years were carried out using uniplanar test specimens. Regarding the multiplanar K-joints, there have been done only a few experiments in different countries. In almost all the cases, the tests were carried out under static load. First fundamental investigations on multiplanar joints· made of circular and square hollow section under fatigue load are being carried out in the Netherlands (Delft University of Technology and TNO Buildung and Construction Research, Rijswijk) and· in Germany (Karlsruhe University sponsored by the ECSC (Puthli, R S., 1988–1991, Mang, F., 1988–1991, Mang, F., 1991–1). The fundamental of this work were static measurements for which the strain concentration factors SNCF are determined in the critical areas by means of strain gauges. On the conference ISOPE "92 in San Francisco, the authors gave a report on the results of this project and made comparisons between uniplanar and multiplanar K-joints made of rectangular hollow sections (Mang, F., 1992). So, this paper presented here is a direct continuation of the papers presented on ISOPE "91 (Mang, F., 1991–1) and ISOPE "92. In a program sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Mang, F., 1991–2), these investigations have been further carried out consequently using the Finite Element Method. The measurements mentioned above were the fundamentals for the determination of a suitable model for multiplanar K -joints with gap made of rectangular hollow sections (RHS). The problematic areas such as comer fillets, welds, size of elements have been optimized through comparative calculations.

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