The increasingly common case of weak-axis end moments - - eliminating unnecessary joint stiffeners

工业结构通常使用结构钢来设计，以利用其在复杂且通常定义不明确的载荷条件下的多功能性、适应性和延展性。除了工业部门中常见的其他加载情况外，为了涵盖结构在使用期间可能因风、设计水力事件、机器操作和潜在的重新调整用途而产生的各种荷载情况，设计工程师正越来越多地在设计文档中添加更复杂的组合荷载情况，这给结构的制造带来了巨大的额外成本。这种情况可能是由于在梁柱连接处指定了强轴弯矩和弱轴弯矩(实际上不会同时发生)，再加上垂直和水平荷载的组合造成的。即使在它们同时发生的地方，荷载通常采用完全刚性的连接节点，而周围结构固有的灵活性实际上往往会减轻所施加的连接力。有信心地确定这些情况，并相应地考虑到该地区的真实结构行为，反过来将导致该结构的成本显著降低。拟议的研究项目将调查整体节点和框架的性能，以便开发一种通用的方法来设计复杂的荷载组合，重点是弱轴弯矩，以便在合理的情况下消除加强筋，从而降低成本。

Industrial structures are most commonly designed using structural steel to take advantage of its versatility, adaptability, and ductility under complex and often ill-defined loading conditions. In order to cover a variety of load cases that could arise during the life of the structure due to wind, design hydraulic events, machine operation, and potential future repurposing, in addition to other loading scenarios common in industrial sectors, design engineers are increasingly adding more complex combined loading cases to the design documents, creating substantial added costs to the fabrication of the structure. This situation could arise as a result of combined vertical and horizontal loads in addition to strong- and weak-axis moments being specified at beam-to-column connections that in truth would not occur concurrently. Even where they do occur concurrently, the loads normally assume a perfectly rigid connection node, whereas flexibilities that are inherent to the surrounding structure actually tend to relieve the applied connection forces. Identifying these cases with confidence, and accordingly accounting for the true structural behaviour in this region would, in turn, result in a significant cost reduction for the structure. The proposed research project will investigate the mechanics of the overall joint and frame behaviour in order to develop a generalised approach to design for complex load combinations, with emphasis on weak-axis moments, to permit the elimination of stiffeners where justified, and in turn reduce costs.