ABSTRACT
Circular hollow sections have excellent strength properties in resisting loading in all directions and thus have been increasingly used in modern steel framed structures. These tube sections, when used as columns, have to be connected to H-beams. The use of outer stiffeners is perhaps the most efficient form of force transfer from both the structural and constructional standpoints. Much of previous research work has focused on the response of externally stiffened steel beam to concrete filled tubular (CFT) column connections, including that of Azizinamini & Schneider (2004), Fukumoto & Morita (2005), Wu et al. (2007) and Shin et al. (2008). On the other hand, limited work is found in the literature on the behavior of externally stiffened connection between tube column and steel beam (Ting et al. 1991, Shanmugam & Ting 1995, Kumar & Rao 2006) and therefore should be further investigated.
