Ductility Characteristics of Partially Restrained

Beam-to-Column Composite Connections in Concrete

Filled Square Tubes

Suhee Park1, Sungmo Choi1,*, Youngwook Park2, Yosuk Kim1 and Jinho Kim3
1 Department of Architectural Eng., University of Seoul, Cheonnong-dong 90, Dongdaemun, Seoul, Korea 130-743
2 HanmiParsons, City Air Tower Bldg.159-9, Samsung-dong, Gangnam, Seoul, Korea 135-973
3 Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology, 79-5, Hwasung, Kyonggi-do, Korea 445-813

(Received: 13 February 2006; Received revised form: 16 June 2008; Accepted: 20 August 2008)

Abstract: This paper presents the development of an improved detail in partially

restrained beam-to-column composite connections in concrete filled square tubes and
the evaluation of its structural characteristics and behaviour under monotonic and
cyclic loading. Studies for the bolted seat-angle connections of existing partially
restrained composite connection (PR-CC) details have been conducted mostly on
shallow beam-to-column connections. In case of deep beam-to-column connections,
the fabrication becomes complicated because the sizes of the seat-angles are larger
than the connections, and the number of bolts and welding length are increased. This
study suggests a new detail of PR-CC which can be applied to concrete-filled tubular
structures incorporating the effect of composite slabs and the performance for
construction work. A welded bottom beam flange connection is proposed to enhance
the capacity of the bottom of the connection and to improve ductility and fabrication.
In addition, a reduced beam section (RBS) is adapted for the bottom beam flange to
examine its effect on ductility. A seat-angle connection with penetrating bolts is also
suggested and compared with the welded bottom beam flange connection. Both
monotonic and cyclic loading tests are conducted on the five full scale specimens to
compare and evaluate their ductility characteristics.

Key words: partially restrained composite connections, concrete filled square tube, effect of slab, monotonic and
cyclic loading test, ductility characteristics.

1. INTRODUCTION slab arranged around the column through bolts in the

The partially restrained composite connection (PR-CC,
hereafter) in a composite beam which combines the
reinforcing bars of concrete slab and the steel beam has
recently been studied by many researchers. The
configuration of the PR-CC is shown in Figure 1 based
on Leon et al.’s research (Leon and Zandonini 1992;
Leon et al. 1996; Leon 1997). Figure 1 shows that the
steel column and the composite beam are connected in
the presence of the top reinforcing bars of the composite
beam web and the angle below the beam bottom flange.
The structural performance of the connections has been
conducted systemically by Zandonini (1989), Leon and
Zandonini (1992), Leon (1997), and Plumier and
Doneaux (2001). The structural performance of the PR-
CC under negative moment can be improved by
controlling the number of top reinforcing bars in the
slab. Moreover, the ultimate behavior of the PR-CC is
determined by the bottom connection detail. The

* Corresponding author. Email address : smc@uos.ac.kr; Fax: +82-2-2248-0382; Tel: 82-2-2210-2396.

Editor: K.F. Chung.

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 Ductility Characteristics of Partially Restrained Beam-to-Column Composite Connections in Concrete Filled Square Tubes
Reinforcing
Column
Shear studs (#4 or #5 Bars)
Metal
decking
Bottom seat angle
Figure 1. Existing connection details of PR-CC
ultimate failure of the PR-CC is i) the shear failure of
bolts connecting the seat angle and the bottom beam
flange when a monotonic load is applied, and ii)
yielding of the bottom seat angle due to the composite
effect of the slab generated under the positive moment
when the cyclic load is applied.
The PR-CC has excellent stiffness, capacity and
ductility due to the composite effect between the slab
and the steel beam. In this study, H-shape steel column
of the PR-CC is replaced with concrete filled steel tube
(CFT, hereafter) column. For the wide range of practical
uses of CFT structures, the authors have developed a
new type of diaphragm with its associated details and
studied the CFT column-to-beam connection adopting
these new details (Choi 2004; Hong 2002; Yoon 2002).
As part of the series of the research studies, this study
suggests a new PR-CC detail which can be applied to
CFT structures incorporating the effect of the composite
slab and the performance for construction work. In this
study, the ductility characteristics of the proposed
connection for both CFT square column-to-beam PR-
CC under monotonic and cyclic loading tests were also
evaluated.
2. PROPOSED CONNECTION DETAIL
AND TEST PLAN
2.1. Proposed Connection Details
The ultimate behavior of the PR-CC is definitely
influenced by its bottom connection detail. The existing
bottom connection adopts a seat-angle with through-
type bolts shown in Figure 2 (SB, hereafter) which are
inconvenient for pouring and filling concrete in the steel
tube. Therefore, two proposed bottom connection
details are designed to reinforce the bottom of the
connection and to improve their ductility, and they are
BW and RBW types which are illustrated in Figure 3(a)
and 3(b), respectively. The BW type is a welded bottom
beam flange connection (BW, hereafter) while the RBW
type is the BW type with a reduced beam section (RBS,
hereafter). The RBS is designed according to FEMA
566
Figure 2. SB: proposed connection details of PR-CC
350 (FEMA 2000). Both connection types have vertical
plates with shear studs welded inside the flanges of the
steel tubes to transfer the large tension forces developed
at the bottom of the connections under positive moments
to the connections. The vertical plates are welded at
fabrication plants with good welding quality inside of
the column plates before the four plates are welded to
make the tube column.
The top connection details of the proposed
connection types are designed according to Choi et al.
(2005) which is shown in Figure 4, and typical floor
loads in common office buildings are applied according
to the AISC-LRFD PRCCs design guide 8 (Leon et al.
1996). The reinforcing bars and the seat angles are
designed for the connections to attain 75% of the
flexural rigidities of the connected steel beams. The 8
reinforcing bars with a nominal diameter of 13mm (8-
D13) are provided around the column at an interval of
100mm in both the vertical and the horizontal planes.
The beams are designed as fully composite beams and
shear studs of 19mm in diameter are placed with a
spacing of 200mm in two rows (2-D19@200).
2.2. Test Plan
In order to examine the structural behaviour of the
proposed connection details, five specimens, S-1 to S-5
as shown in Figure 4(a), are tested as shown in Figure 5.
Both the columns and the beams of the specimens are
square tubular sections of
-400 × 400 × 12 (SM490
Advances in Structural Engineering Vol. 11 No. 5 2008
Suhee Park, Sungmo Choi, Youngwook Park, Yosuk Kim and Jinho Kim

PL-600×125×20
(SM490, Fy=330. 3MPa)

H-500×200×10×16
(SS400)
-400×400×12
(SM490)

400

-400×400×12
(SM490)
45ß
200 H-500×200×10×16
(SS400)

A A’

(a) BW: section and elevation

8−D16 Length 60mm (Fy = 22.1

PL-600×125×20 MPa)
(SM490, Fy = 330. 3MPa)
150 375
D13@100 D6@100
Reinforcing Wire mesh
bars
50

(Fy = 40. 2MPa)

H-500×20×10×16 D19@200
(SS400)
-400×400×12 shear stud
2,000

(SM490) [ [
400 D13@100
Reinforcing
bars
-400×400×12 (Fy = 41. 2MPa)
(SM490)
45¡
50 100 50 3,500
200 H-500×200×10×16
(SS400) (b) Slab details

Figure 4. Proposed connection details in the test specimens

A A’

(b) RBW: section and elevation

Figure 3. Proposed bottom connection details
Fy=330MPa) and wide flange beam sections of H-
200×200×10×16 (SS400 Fy=240MPa), respectively.
The load-jack is located at the right-end of the
specimens. The distance from the center of the columns
to the loading point was 3,500 mm. The steel tubular
columns are filled with high performance concrete with
a compressive strength of 49MPa while normal concrete
of a compressive strength of 24MPa is used in the slab.
The thickness of the slab is 150 mm and the width of the
slab is determined as 2,000 mm, according to the design
rule of the effective flange width of T-beams (Gioncu et
al. 2002). The primary characteristics of each specimen
are the connection details and the type of loadings as
shown in Table 1.

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 Ductility Characteristics of Partially Restrained Beam-to-Column Composite Connections in Concrete Filled Square Tubes

Table 1. Test program

Connection details at the bottom of the connection

Welding of Seat Column reinforcement

Specimen beam flange Angle RBS near the connected beam Loading Expected failure
S-1  4 through bolts Monotonic Ductile failure of top
reinforcing bars
S-2  Vertical plate and anchor Monotonic Ductile failure of top
reinforcing bars
S-3  4 through bolts Cyclic Ductile failure of
bottom seat angle
S-4  Vertical plate and anchor Cyclic Yielding of anchors
inside the steel tube
S-5   Vertical plate and anchor Cyclic Ductile failure of RBS
at bottom beam flange.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 6 Step 8

200 0.05rad
2 cycle
150

Displacement (mm)
0.03rad
2 cycle
100 0.01rad
0.00375rad 0.005rad 0.0075rad 4 cycle
50 6 cycle 6 cycle 6 cycle
0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32
−50
Step 5
−100 0.02rad
2 cycle Step 7
−150 0.04rad
ANSI/AISC SSPEC-2002 cyclic loading program
2 cycle Step 9
−200 0.06rad
Accumulation number of cycles 2 cycle

Figure 6. Cyclic loading program

to ultimate strength given in Table 2 were found to be

Figure 5. Test set-up
The hysteresis behaviors of the specimens are tested
through the monotonic and the cyclic loadings. The
cyclic loadings were applied to the specimens using
displacement-control method, according to ANSI/AISC
SSPEC-2002 cyclic loading program (AISC 2002), as
shown in Figure 6. Typical arrangements of the strain
gauges onto the specimens are shown in Figure 7, and
they are attached to the points of stress concentration as
predicted under the monotonic and the cyclic loadings.
3. TEST RESULTS
3.1. Material Test
The material test results of the steel and the concrete
used in the specimens are given in Table 2 and 3,
respectively. The tensile tests on 12 mm-thick plate of
SM490 steel, and 10 mm and 16 mm-thick plates of
SS400 steel are conducted according to KS (Korean
Standard) B 0802: Method of Tensile Tests for Metallic
Materials. The ultimate strength Fu and the ratio of yield
satisfactory to use. Table 3 summarizes the compressive
tests on the concrete used in the slab and the CFT, and
the 28-day compressive strengths are found to exceed
their design values.
3.2. Monotonic Loading Test
The monotonic loading test results are summarized in
Tables 4 and 5. In Table 4, the relationship between the
moment and the rotation of the specimens is tabulated
while the yield moment capacity, My, is determined
with the General Yield Point method. The expected and
the observed failure modes of each specimen are
tabulated in Table 5 while the moment-rotation curves
for the two specimens are shown in Figure 8; the dashed
line represents the full plastic moment capacity, Mp. As
shown in Figure 8(a), ductile bending failure in the
concrete slab in Specimen S-1 occurs at 0.06rad with
severe fracture at the top of the cantilever slab. As
shown in Figure 8(b), bending failure of slab in
Specimen S-2 occurs while ultimate shear failure in the
bolts between the gusset plate and the beam web occurs
at 0.06rad.

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Suhee Park, Sungmo Choi, Youngwook Park, Yosuk Kim and Jinho Kim

90 247.5 Table 4. M-θ results of monotonic loading test

20
Specimen Mmax θmax My θy K

80 80
No. (kN·m) (rad.) (kN·m) (rad.) (kN·m/rad.)
S-1 477.8 0.033 417.8 0.0039 49,000
S-2 454.5 0.027 360.2 0.0029 55,468

20
Mmax : Maximum moment capacity (kN·m)
θmax : Maximum rotational angle (rad.)
K : Initial stiffness (kN·m/rad.)

90 90
Table 5. Failure modes of monotonic loading test

Expected failure Observed failure

30

Specimen mode mode

S-1 Ductile failure of top Ductile failure of
reinforcing bars reinforced concrete slab
S-2 Ductile failure of top Shear failure of bolts in
reinforcing bars beam web due to the
bearing stress
30

3.3. Cyclic Loading Tests

The cyclic loading test results are summarized in Tables
6 and 7. Table 6 presents the relation between the
moment and the rotation of the specimens while Table 7
Figure 7. The locations of strain gauges gives the failure modes of the specimens. The moment-
rotation curves of the three specimens are shown in
Figure 9; the dashed line represents the full plastic
moment capacity, Mp.
Table 2. Tensile test results of steel As shown in the hysteresis curve in Figure 9(a),
(average value) Specimen S-3 starts to crack on the welding zone
between the horizontal plate and the vertical plate of the
THK(mm) Fy(MPa) Fu(MPa) Fy/Fu Elo.(%)
seat angle at step 8 (shown with a marker ‘’) and
Column 12 360.6 506.7 0.71 26 reaches its ultimate state with fracture in the weld zone
Beam 16 263.6 392 0.67 33 at step 9 (shown with a maker ‘’). Also, there is some
flange
spacing between the bottom flange of the beam and the
Seat angle 10 340.1 450.8 0.75 28
Bolts 109.9 14 column flange. The bolted seat angle allows the
connection to deform readily even under small loads.
So, after large deformation of the reinforcing bars of the
slab and the seat angle, the connection reaches its
maximum capacity.
As shown in Figure 9(b), Specimen S-4 exhibits a
Table 3. Compressive test results of concrete
stable hysteresis behavior and reaches its ultimate state
cylinder (average value, MPa)
at step 9 with fracture in the welding zone between the
Compressive Design bottom flange of the beam and the steel tube. At step 5,
strength values 7-day 28-day an anchor inside the column begins to yield (shown with
Slab 24 19.6 25.1 a marker ‘’), and the bottom of the column swells out.
CFT 49 41.9 49.9 Then, micro-cracks are found at both edges of the
welding zone of the beam flange owing to stress
concentration, and the slip occurs due to cracking of the
concrete. Therefore, both the capacity and the stiffness

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600 600

500 500

Moment (kN.m)
Moment (kN.m)

400 400
Mp 323,3kN.m Mp 318.7kN.m
300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Rotation (rad.) Rotation (rad.)
(b) Specimen S-2
(a) Specimen S-1

Figure 8. Moment-rotation curves - monotonic loading tests

Table 6. M-θ results of cyclic loading test

Specimen Mmax(+) θmax(+) Mmax(–) θmax(–) My θy K+ K–

No. (kN·m) (rad.) (kN·m) (rad.) (kN·m) (rad.) (kN·m/rad) (kN·m/rad)
S-3 706.3 0.03 486.8 0.03 355.1 0.005 45,795 52,499
S-4 757.3 0.01 428.1 0.02 370.8 0.004 62,818 56,536
S-5 743.3 0.01 435.3 0.02 391 0.005 62,661 55,468

Mmax(+)(θmax(+)) and Mmax(-)(θmax(-)): Maximum moment capacity (Rotation angle) under positive and negative moments, respectively
K+ and K- : Initial stiffness under positive and negative moments, respectively.

Table 7. Failure results of cyclic loading test

Test result
Specimen
No. Expected failure Failure mode Failure mode
S-3 ductile failure of bottom seat angle fracture of bottom seat angle +1 cycle at step 9
S-4 failure of weld zone of bottom beam failure of weld zone of +2 cycle at step 8
flange bottom beam flange
S-5 ductile failure of RBS in bottom failure of weld zone of +2 cycle at step 8
beam flange bottom beam flange

of Specimen S-4 decrease with yielding of an anchor in
the column.
As shown in Figure 9(c), Specimen S-5 reaches its
ultimate state at step 8 (shown with a marker ‘’) with
fracture in the welding zone between the bottom flange
of the beam and the steel tube. At step 6, mill scales on
the RBS in the bottom beam flange start to fall off, while
micro cracks in welding between the bottom beam
flange and the steel tube column occur subsequently.
Even though the expected failure in Specimen S-5 is the
ductile failure on the RBS in the bottom beam flange,
Specimen S-5 exhibits almost the same behavior of
Specimen S-4. Therefore, the test was terminated at step 9.
4. ANALYSIS AND EXAMINATION
4.1. Monotonic Loading Tests
(1) Evaluation of connection behaviour
The behaviors of Specimens S-1 and S-2 can be
classified into 3 deformation stages, i.e. stages A, B and
C in Figure 10. In stage A, the gross sectional area of the
slab is available, while in stage B, only the reinforcing
bars in the slab resist the tension forces. In stage C, the

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Suhee Park, Sungmo Choi, Youngwook Park, Yosuk Kim and Jinho Kim

600 600
Negative moment A B C
400 500
Mp a

Moment (kN. m)
200 400
Moment (kN. m)

0 300
−0.06 −0.05 −0.04 −0.03 −0.02 −0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06

−200
200

100
−400

Seat-Angle Type
0
−600 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Rotation (rad.)
Positive moment −800

Rotation (rad.) (Mp : Expected Plastic Moment)

(a) Specimen S-1

(a) Specimen S-3

600
A B C

600 500
Negative moment
b

Moment (kN. m)
400 400
Mp c
200 300
Moment (kN. m)

0
200
−0.06 −0.05 −0.04 −0.03 −0.02 −0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06

100
−200

0
−400 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Rotation (rad.)
−600
Welded Type (b) Specimen S-2
Positive moment −800

Rotation (rad.) (Mp : Expected Plastic Moment) Figure 10. M-θ curve of monotonic loading test
(b) Specimen S-4

600
Negative moment

400
bars increase rapidly. In stage C, the connection deforms
Mp
200 excessively but still preserves its bending capacity by
Moment (kN. m)

−0.06 −0.05 −0.04 −0.03 −0.02
Welded Type with RBS
Welded Type
Positive moment
Figure 9. M-θ curve - cyclic loading test results
connection reaches its ultimate strength with yielding of
the reinforcing bars and large deformation of the beam web.
The behavior of Specimen S-1 may be described as
follow; in stage A, the strain of the reinforcing bars is
small once the slab takes part in bending. In stage B,
concrete reaches its tensile strain limit under moment
and cracks are developed around the column in the
direction perpendicular to the principal stresses in the
slab. Then, concrete loses its tension-resisting capacity
and most of the tension forces are resisted by the
reinforcing bars. Therefore, the strains of the reinforcing
the anchors inside the steel tube near the top of the
0
−0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 connection. And then, its moment capacity decreases
−200 sharply as shown with ‘a’ of Figure 10 (a), due to local
−400
buckling of the bottom beam flange.
The behavior of Specimen S-2 was different from
−600
that of Specimen S-1. Because the actual compressive
−800 capacity of the welding zone in the bottom of the
Rotation (rad.) (Mp : Expected Plastic Moment)
connection is larger than the anticipated value, large
(c) Specimen S-5
bending moment is generated in the connection. As the
large tension force is generated at the top of the
connection, the reinforcing bars in the slab and the
vertical plate inside the steel tube at the top of the
connection yield earlier than those in Specimen S-1.
Therefore, the bolts in the web connection slip due to
large bending deflection, and the bending moment drops
suddenly as shown with ‘b’ in Figure 10(b). After then,
the reinforcing bars lose their resistances and Specimen
S-2 reaches its ultimate state with a decrease in its
moment capacity as shown with ‘c’ in Figure 10(b), due
to local bearing stresses acting onto the bolts generated
by local bending of the web connection.
(2) Failure mode
Ductile yielding of the reinforcing bars in Specimens
S-1 and S-2 are expected, according to the calculated

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 Ductility Characteristics of Partially Restrained Beam-to-Column Composite Connections in Concrete Filled Square Tubes

capacities. In the tests, they show ductile behavior in the 800

Moment (kN.m)
presence of the reinforced concrete slabs. 600
i) At the end, more it should be noted that 400
Specimen S-1 fails with ductile collapse in the
200
reinforced concrete slab. Fracture of the slab on
0
the cantilever beam behind the steel tube is
−0.06 −0.04 −0.02 −200 0 0.02 0.04 0.06
severe due to bending. Yet, it attains 91% of its Rotation (rad)
moment capacity at a rotation more than −400
0.05rad, and this shows sufficient ductility −600 S-3
through yielding of the reinforcing bars. S-4
−800
S-5
ii) At the end, Specimen S-2 fails in shear due to −1000
local bearing stresses acting onto the bolts in the
web connection. It attains 83% of its moment Figure 11. M-θ curves of connections under first loading cycles
capacity at a rotation more than 0.05rad. Also,
no failure in the welding zone at the bottom of Step 12 3 4 5 6 7 8
the connection is induced because of the 1.2
presence of the vertical plate and the anchors Ms / Mmax
1
inside the steel tube.
0.8
4.2. Cyclic Loading Tests
0.6
(1) Initial stiffness and strength
S-3
The initial stiffnesses of the specimens are tabulated in 0.4 S-4
Table 6. The initial stiffnesses of Specimens S-4 and S- S-5
5 are about 28% larger than that of Specimen S-3 0.2
Rotation (rad)
because of early yielding of the welded connections 0
under positive moments. 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
The monotonic curves made by the first cycle of each Figure 12. Variation in the moment ratios of the specimens in
step from the cyclic loading tests of the three specimens various steps
are shown in Figure 11 to evaluate their strengths and
initial stiffnesses. The moment capacity of Specimen S-
5 which adopts a RBS in the bottom beam flange is
shown to increase smoothly until step 6 (0.03 rad) with
found to be similar to that of Specimen S-4. The reason
ductile behavior until step 8 (0.05 rad). The moment
why Specimens S-4 and S-5 have similar behaviour is
capacities of Specimens S-4 and S-5 increase rapidly
that in Specimen S-5, the connection between the
until step 4 (0.01 rad) because of high stiffness at the
bottom beam flange and the steel tube column starts
connections, and decrease until step 5 because of
to yield before any significant deformation in the
yielding at the anchors inside the steel tube. After that,
RBS. Therefore, the moment capacities of Specimens
they yield under large stresses at the edges of the welded
S-4 and S-5 depend solely on the welded connections
zones but are able to demonstrate a ductile behavior
of the beam flanges. Also, the difference between the
until step 8 (0.05 rad).
moment capacities of Specimens S-4 and S-3 (with a
(2) Evaluation of connection performance
through-type bolted connection of seat-angle) is
The performance of each specimen is evaluated
found to be within ±10%. As shown in Figure 11, the
according to Eurocode 3 (1992) which classifies a
positive moment capacities of the specimens are
connection into three different connection types
about 1.5 to 1.8 times the negative moment capacities
according to its capacity and stiffness, namely i) rigid
of the specimens, due to the presence of the
connection, ii) semi-rigid connection, and iii) pinned
composite slabs.
connection, as shown in Figure 13. The moment-
The ratio of the positive moment capacities, Ms/Mmax is
rotation relationship of a connection is non-
represented in Figure 12 where Ms is the maximum
dimensionalized as shown in Eqn 1.
moment at the first cycle of each step, and Mmax is the
maximum moment in the entire step. The values of Ms at M φ
step 1 of Specimens S-3, S-4 and S-5 are found to be m= , φ=
M Fp M Fp Lb (1)
294.84kN˙m, 413.83kN˙m and 373.12kN˙m, respectively.
In Figure 12, the moment capacity of Specimen S-3 is EI b

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Suhee Park, Sungmo Choi, Youngwook Park, Yosuk Kim and Jinho Kim

m 1.6
Rigid connection Full strength m S-3
1.4
1.00 S-4
Unbraced frames Partial 1.2 S-5
Braced frames strength
1
0.67
Semi-rigid connection 0.8
0.6
0.4
0.25
0.2
Pin connection
0
0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
0.03 0.08 0.12 0.20 0.50
(a) Negative moment
Figure 13. Connection classification in Eurocode 3
1.6
m
1.4
where
MFp = Plastic moment capacity of the beam, 1.2

M = Moment capacity of the connection, 1

ϕ = Rotation of the connection, 0.8
S-3
Lb = Length of the beam, 0.6 S-4
EIb = Flexural stiffness of the beam 0.4 S-5

Each specimen is designed to resist 75% of the plastic 0.2

moment capacity of the beam under negative moment.
Non-dimensional moment-rotation curves of all the
specimens are shown in Figure 14 and evaluation of the
connection performance are summarized in Table 8.
All specimens are classified as semi-rigid
connections based on Figure 14 and Table 8. Only the
reinforcing bars in the slabs under negative moment
resist sufficiently as shown in Figure 14(a). However,
the values of M/MFp of Specimens S-4 and S-5 under
positive moment are found to be about 1.5 due to
the presence of the composite slabs, as shown in
Figure 14(b).
Moreover, the stiffnesses of Specimens S-4 and S-5
under positive moments are about 10% larger than that
of Specimen S-3 because yield strains of Specimens S-4
and S-5 which connected by welding were smaller than
Specimen S-3 which connected by bolts. According to
Eurocode 3, a connection must satisfy Eqn 2 in order to
be classified as a partial strength connection.
M Fp
< M ≤ M Fp
4
All the specimens under negative moment may be
classified as partial strength connections but Specimens
S-4 and S-5 under positive moment are classified as full
strength connections. Moreover, Specimen S-3 is
classified as a semi rigid-partial strength connection
under both negative and positive moment while
Specimens S-4 and S-5 are classified as semi rigid-
partial strength connections under negative moment
while semi rigid-full strength connections under
positive moment.
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
(b) Positive moment
Figure 14. Non-dimensionalized M-θ of connection
(3) Failure mode
All specimens were fractured when the tension forces
acted at lower connection parts by positive moments. In
Specimen S-3, the large deformation through prying
action was occurred at the bolting part of the seat-angle.
However, the final failure of the specimen was a
fracture at the welding zone of horizontal and vertical
plates at step 9 (0.05rad) because the seat-angle was
fabricated by welding of two plates. Specimen S-4 was
fractured at the welding zone between the bottom beam
flange and the steel tube column after sufficient
deformation capacity without sudden decrease in
capacity until the test ended. Specimen S-5 was
expected to have a ductile failure at the RBS of beam
(2) but was fractured with the same failure of Specimen S-
4. At failure, there was no RBS effect even though the
RBS of beam was designed to have the minimum
capacity based on FEMA 350. To induce the ductile
failure of the RBS, the capacity of anchors inside the
steel tube must be increased. However, this is not
adequate for a partially restrained connection.
Therefore, RBS is unsuitable for the bottom connection
detail of PR-CC.
(4) Inelastic deformation capacity
To absorb large energy during earthquakes, the inelastic
deformation capacities of the connections are essential.

Advances in Structural Engineering Vol. 11 No. 5 2008 573

 Ductility Characteristics of Partially Restrained Beam-to-Column Composite Connections in Concrete Filled Square Tubes

Table 8. Summary of connection performances

K / Kp M / MFp

Negative moment Positive moment Negative moment Positive moment Evaluation results
S-3 0.82 0.76 0.81 1.54 Semi-rigid/Partial strength
S-4 0.85 0.86 0.80 1.50 Semi-rigid/Full strength
S-5 0.80 0.81 0.85 0.90 Semi-rigid/Full strength

Table 9. Inelastic deformation capacities 1.00

M / Mmax Negative moment
0.75
Negative moment Positive moment M*/Mmax

(tension on top) (tension on bottom) 0.50

0.25
M/Mmax θp (rad) M/Mmax θp (rad) 0.00
−0.06 −0.04 −0.02−0.25 0 0.02 0.04 0.06
S-3 0.8 0.034 0.8 0.037 Inelastic rotation(rad.)
S-4 0.73 0.033 0.8 0.046 −0.50
S-5 0.8 0.034 0.8 0.047 M*/Mmax
−0.75
−1.00
Positive moment (M*= 0.8Mmax)
−1.25
In general, the ductility of a connection is a very (a) Specimen S-3
important factor when deformation is concentrated at
the connection. Under 80% of the moment capacities, 1.00
M / Mmax Negative moment
the rotation of a ductile connection should be more than 0.75 M*/Mmax
0.03rad while that of a brittle connection is typically less 0.50
than 0.03rad (Chen 1999). 0.25
To evaluate the deformation capacity of the 0.00
specimens, the moment-rotation relationships after step −0.06 −0.04 −0.02−0.25 0 0.02 0.04 0.06
7 (δ=105mm and θ=0.03rad) are shown in Figure 15 −0.50
Inelastic rotation(rad.)

while specific inelastic deformation capacities are M*/Mmax

−0.75
summarized in Table 9. In Figure 15, M* (=0.8Mmax) is −1.00
Positive moment (M*= 0.8Mmax)
80% of the moment capacity of the specimen. −1.25
Specimens S-3 and S-5 attain more than 0.03rad at (b) Specimen S-4
M* while Specimen S-4 attains only 73% of its negative
moment capacity at a rotation large than 0.03 rad. 1.00
Negative moment
M / Mmax
Hence, it does not satisfy the required inelastic rotation 0.75 M*/Mmax
capacity for a ductile connection. It should be noted that 0.50
all specimens fail at the bottom of the connection under 0.25
positive moment and the inelastic rotation at M* is 0.00
larger than 0.03rad. Therefore, all specimens attain −0.06 −0.04 −0.02−0.25 0 0.02 0.04 0.06
sufficient deformation capacities and ductility under Inelastic rotation(rad.)
−0.50
positive moment. M*/Mmax
−0.75
−1.00
5. CONCLUSIONS Positive moment (M*= 0.8Mmax)
−1.25
The following conclusions are drawn from the results of
(c) Specimen S-5
the monotonic and the cyclic loading tests on partially
restrained beam-to-column composite connections in Figure 15. M-θ curve after step 7 (0.03rad)
concrete filled square tubes:
(1) Under monotonic loadings, the proposed
connection types attain over 80% of their
moment capacities at a rotation larger than (2) Under cyclic loadings, inelastic rotations of all
0.05rad. They show stable and ductile behavior. the specimens are within 0.034 and 0.047rad
The reinforcing bars in the concrete slab are when their moments are equal to 80% of their
designed to match 75% of the stiffnesses of the moment capacities. This satisfies the
connected steel beams. requirement of a ductile connection.

574 Advances in Structural Engineering Vol. 11 No. 5 2008

Suhee Park, Sungmo Choi, Youngwook Park, Yosuk Kim and Jinho Kim
(3) The through-bolted seat-angle connection type
behaves satisfactorily as a partially restrained
connection under both positive and negative
moments. After large inelastic deformation,
ductile failure in the bottom seat-angle is
induced. This connection detail is used in the
CFT column-to-beam connection to replace the
current seat-angle bolted connection.
(4) In the proposed connection with a reduced beam
section (RBS), although the RBS was designed
to achieve a minimum capacity, failure occurs
not at the RBS but at the anchors inside the steel
tube instead. To induce the ductile failure of the
RBS, the capacity of the anchors inside the steel
tube must be increased, but this is not possible in
a partially restrained connection. Therefore, the
RBS is unsuitable for such a connection.
(5) The welded bottom beam flange connection
attains sufficient moment capacity through the
anchor bolts in the steel tube at a rotation more
than 0.04rad. Therefore, this type of connection
is demonstrated to have sufficient ductility
similar to the current bolted seat-angle
connection. As a result, the proposed connection
are able to perform successfully in beam-to-
column composite connections in concrete filled
square tubes in practice.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was conducted with the support of the
National Research Laboratory Project (R0A-2007-000-
10047-0) funded by the Korea Science and Engineering
Foundation (KOSEF) and Brain Korea 21 Stage II
project (C6A2204) of the Korea Research Foundation.
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