METODOLOGÍA PARA EVALUACIÓN DE UNIONES ATORNILLADAS BASADA EN EL MÉTODO DE LOS ELEMENTOS FINITOS Y TÉCNICAS DE MINERÍA DE DATOS

Abstract

Connections between beams and columns are one of the most critical elements in steel structures due to their highly nonlinear behaviour. The failure of a joint would produce the collapse of the whole structure so further details are needed to study geometrical discontinuities, local yielding, contact or stress concentrations. Nowadays, bolted connections are assessed through the component method which is included in the Eurocode 3. This mechanical method provides step-by-step analytical formulae but do not take into account some of the nonlinearities embodied in the bolted connections. In this paper, an alternative methodology based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) and Data Mining (DM) techniques is presented to predict the fully nonlinear behaviour of bolted connections. This methodology takes advantage of the FEM’s capacity but it is capable to reduce the computation time in a simplified mathematical model by means of the DM techniques. Finally, three cases study focus on the lap joint, the T-stub and the extended end-plate beam-to-column connections have been carried out by EDMANS group in order to apply this novelty methodology. Predictive models have been developed and validated against experimental tests and the results show a high correlation between FE simulations and the predictive models.