The Effects of Internal and External Stiffeners on Hysteretic Behavior of Steel Beam to CFT Column Connections

This study focuses on the performance of H-shaped steel beams to CFT column rigid connections. To this end, the effects of internal and external stiffeners on hysteretic behavior of connections were studied. Comparative numerical analyses were carried out on eight different connections. To this end,finite element models were prepared using ANSYS and nonlinear cyclic analyses were carried out. Results of this study revealed that external stiffeners are key elements to increase the ductility and strength of steel beam to CFT column connections. The connections with internal stiffeners, without any external stiffeners did not exhibit observable hysteretic behavior. On the other hands T-shaped stiffened connections exhibited stable hysteresis loops. Furthermore the capacities of T-stiffened connections were about 1.75 times greater than that of models with horizontal or vertical stiffeners.