6533b7d0fe1ef96bd125ab7a

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Optimal Design of New Steel Connections

subject

description

The Limited Resistance Rigid Perfectly Plastic Hinge (LRPH) are special steel connections mainly usable to join beam elements of plane or spatial steel frames. The fundamental characteristics of these devices are the mutual independence of their own resistance and stiffness features as well as the respect of assigned constraints related to the elastic and limit behaviour of the joined elements. Within the frame structural scheme, the device plays the role of a rigid perfectly plastic hinge, constituted by a suitably sized sandwich section. The efficient use of the LRPH in the relevant frame depends on the appropriate design of the device geometry. In the present paper, a new approach devoted to the optimal flexural design of the LRPH is presented, according with the imposed mechanical constraints as well as with further suggested technological ones. The optimization procedure is based on a genetic algorithm approach and different applications are reported confirming the good applicability of the computational method as well as the reliability of the relevant device.