Elevated Temperature Performance of Beam End Framing Connections

该研究将开发实验数据、分析模型和设计模型，用于高温下梁端框架连接的性能。这项工作将包括钢结构框架的热结构分析，以表征梁端连接处的力和变形需求，对连接组件进行广泛的高温实验，以及对连接进行详细的有限元分析。​美国没有这样的结构火灾试验设施。这两个测试程序的协调将为梁框架连接在多个尺度上的高温性能提供基准质量数据，并将显著增强对火灾条件下梁连接行为的理解。这项研究将填补目前关于暴露在火灾中的结构建筑构件性能的知识库中的一个重要空白，并将有助于实现美国建筑结构的基于性能的工程防火，最终目标是提供更安全和更具成本效益的建筑。该研究项目还将培养一名结构火灾工程领域的博士，帮助满足美国对该领域年轻学者的迫切需求。要使美国走向以性能为基础的结构防火安全，还需要提高该领域结构工程师的教育水平。为了满足这一需求，PI于2006年首次在德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校开发并开设了研究生水平的结构火灾工程课程。作为该研究项目的一部分，PI将进一步开发关于结构火灾工程的课程材料，这些材料可以作为本科钢铁设计课程的一个模块纳入本科水平。

The research will develop experimental data, analytical models, and design models for the performance of beam end framing connections at elevated temperature. The work will include thermal-structural analysis of steel building frames to characterize the force and deformation demands at beam end connections, extensive high temperature experiments on connection subassemblies, and detailed finite element analysis of connections. This research will be coordinated with a parallel effort underway at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, where tests will be conducted on complete full-scale beams with end connections and the development of catenary forces, in a large-scale structural-fire test furnace. No such structural-fire test facility exists in the US. The coordination of these two test programs will provide benchmark quality data on the high temperature performance of beam framing connections at multiple scales, and will lead to significantly enhanced understanding of beam connection behavior under fire conditions.This research will fill an important gap in the current knowledge base on the performance of structural building components exposed to fire and will contribute towards enabling performance-based engineered fire protection of building structures in the US, with an ultimate goal of providing safer and more cost-effective buildings. This research project will also produce a PhD in the structural-fire engineering field, helping to meet an acute US need for young scholars in this field. To move the US towards performance-based structural fire safety will also require improved education of structural engineers in this field. To address this need, the PI developed and offered a graduate level course in Structural-Fire Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin for the first time in 2006. As part of this research project, the PI will develop further course materials on structural-fire engineering that can be incorporated at the undergraduate level, as a module in an undergraduate steel design course.