Experiments on cyclic behaviour of reusable side plate cold-formed steel semi-rigid moment-resisting connections.

Ibrahimov, Kanan; Sabbagh, Alireza Bagheri; Jafarifar, Naeimeh; Davidson, Paul

Abstract

Eight large-scale tests are presented on cantilever side plate cold-formed steel (CFS) semi-rigid moment-resisting connections. These comprise lipped or unlipped side-plates attached to both sides of built-up tubular CFS beam and column sections by means of bolted or screwed connections. The reusability of the connections is investigated by repeating the tests with the original beam and column sections and modified connections. The predominant limit state is side plate plasticity (SPP) for all the connections except the lipped screwed connections governed by screw shear (SS) failure. The findings demonstrate that lipped side plate connections reached a higher peak moment and energy dissipation by up to 60% and 120%, respectively, compared with those of the unlipped connections. All the tested connections are classified as semi-rigid while the bolted connections show up to 1.9 times higher level of elastic stiffness than the screwed connections. The lipped side plate bolted connection is identified as more suitable to be considered for a reusable design.

Citation

IBRAHIMOV, K., SABBAGH, A.B., JAFARIFAR, N. and DAVIDSON, P. 2025. Experiments on cyclic behaviour of reusable side plate cold-formed steel semi-rigid moment-resisting connections. Engineering structures [online], 341, article number 120797. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2025.120797

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 16, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jun 21, 2025
• Publication Date: Oct 15, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2025
• Journal: Engineering structures
• Print ISSN: 0141-0296
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-7323
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 341
• Article Number: 120797
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2025.120797
• Keywords: Cold-formed steel; Semi-rigid moment-resisting connections; Cyclic behaviour; Bolted and screwed connections
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2780300