ABSTRACT
Following recent events such as the World Trade Center building collapse and the Cardington large scale structural fire research program, the fire behavior of connections has now become an important research subject. This paper reports the preliminary results of an experimental and numerical investigation to understand the behavior of various components of simple shear connections to steel tube and concrete-filled tubular (CFT) columns at elevated temperatures, which compliments the CIDECT sponsored research project on fire performance and robustness of steel beam – CFT column structural assemblies, which has recently started at the University of Manchester. Experimental studies are now being conducted in an electrically heated kiln to collect data on the behavior of fin plate, end plate and reverse channel connectors connected to short steel and CFT columns under tension or shear force in the connectors at various elevated temperatures. This paper will mainly present the results of a parametric numerical investigation of the shear behavior of fin plates at elevated temperatures.
