Simulation of a flush endplate connection at elevated temperatures including fracture simulation

Abstract

Actual developments in numerical simulations of the structural behaviour in fire situation are focussed on taking into consideration the interaction of all structural members in a global numerical approach. Therefore it is necessary to model the load bearing behaviour of connections in detail. In this paper a detailed 3D numerical model of a bolted steel endplate connection taking into account nonlinearities, e.g. temperature dependent material, is presented. The simulation is validated by experimental tests conducted at the University of Sheffield in 2008. During some of the experimental tests, large deformations and fractures occurred. These phenomena are simulated with the numerical model as well.