Strengthening and Retrofitting of Steel Moment Connections

This paper presents and discusses the effectiveness of using different techniques for rehabilitation and strengthening of steel moment connections using side plates. Verification models are performed using the commercial finite element program (Cosmos/M- Ver.2.6), and these finite element models are calibrated against some experimental results. The results showed good agreement and they are briefly reviewed in this paper. A series of seven groups of steel moment connections strengthened by either using steel side plates or using flanged cover plates or both, are investigated to figure the contribution of different retrofitting methods. The parametric analysis takes into consideration variable parameters such as thickness, length and height of side plates. Comparison between unretrofitted models and models with different strengthening techniques, for the ratio (Mult/Mp) versus variable geometrical parameters, are performed. The Finite Element results showed that the use of welded side plates significantly increases the moment capacity of the connections, and the most effective technique is to use side plates of depth equal to depth of the connecting beam and without top or bottom plates on beam’s flanges.