Collaborative Research: Structural Integrity of Steel Gravity Framing Systems

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The research objective of this award is provide critical experimental data and assessment tools essential for evaluating the integrity of common steel gravity load resisting systems. A combination of system testing and component testing will be used to assess the behavior of these systems as designed today. These experimental results will then be used to advance models for the analysis of such systems under large deformations and to identify critical details that have a major impact on system performance. Cost-effective details that transform performance will be developed and tested at the component level and then incorporated in system tests. At the component level, steel connections will be tested under combined rotation and tension loading, and important details of the slab on deck system, such as lap splices, beam anchorage, and the tensile behavior of the slabs on metal decks in orthogonal directions will be tested. System tests will involve large-scale push-down tests of gravity frame systems using current practice details and new concepts developed in this research.The results of this research will directly impact the safety of almost all steel buildings by assessing the integrity of ubiquitous structural components and developing models for engineers to employ. It will also develop transformative solutions for improving the robustness of common gravity frame components and systems. Through close collaboration with the American Institute of Steel Construction, expedient dissemination and rapid implementation will be facilitated. Graduate students will be directly trained through this research as they address the challenges associated with unanticipated structural loadings. Interest and diversity in engineering will be enhanced through partnerships with the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at Purdue, the Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) at Illinois and the Seattle Mathematics Engineering Science and Achievement Program (Seattle MESA) at Washington. These programs will provide for undergraduate (SURF and SROP) and high school (MESA) research internships.