Nonlinear Modeling and Analysis of Cold-Formed Steel Beam-Column Connection

In the moment resisting frame system, the cold-formed steel beam is designed to be able to deform inelastically and produce sufficient ductility. Therefore, it is necessary to design the detailing of the beam-column connection elements that can accommodate the ductility requirements of the structure. Previous studies have shown that the use of stiffeners can increase the ductility and energy dissipation of beams. In addition, there are studies showing that gusset plate elements can increase the initial stiffness of CFS connections and frames resulting in good ductility and energy dissipation. Therefore, this study will propose a connection design by evaluating the effect of several variations of beam stiffener configuration on the behaviour of the connection. This research is analytical in nature using finite element based Sub-Assemblage numerical modeling using Abaqus software. The analysed behaviour of the connection includes the rotational moment curve, moment capacity, and ductility, energy dissipation. The results of the analysis show that the stiffener configuration with the shape of X, which is represented by S8 specimen, produces optimal connection behavior from other configurations. The S8 specimen has the largest moment capacity of the other models, which is 37.10 kNm and increase 14.47% over the benchmark specimen, S1. The S8 specimen also has the greatest ductility compared to the other specimens, which is 4.04 and increase of 108.63% over the S1 specimen. Furthermore, the S8 specimen has the largest energy dissipation, which is 6.54 kNm-rad and increase of 37.69% over the S1 specimen.