Journal of Steel & Structure

Journal of Steel & Structure

Influence of Gusset Plate Connection Stiffness on the Behavior of Steel Braced Frames

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Seyyed Mohyeddin Ghodratian Kashan 1
Seyed Hassan Sharbatdar Hosseini 2
1 Faculty of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology
2 College of Engineering, University of Tehran
10.22034/jss.2026.545966.1002
Abstract
Steel connections are often divided into two categories; either fully pin or fully fixed. However, in practice, pin connections show some degree of constraining and fixed connection will not provide a behavior of absolute constraining. Thus, the behavior of connections does not completely align with these two categories. Definitely, this issue has effects on the characteristics of structures. However, in designing of ordinary steel buildings, these effects have neglected and it’s assumed that the behavior of the connection is an ideal one.  In this paper, beam to column connection is evaluated where the brace joints them through a gusset plate. While the implementation of gusset plate may produce considerable amount of constraining, this connection is modeled as mere pin connection. This research is carried out in two main phases. In the first phase, an experimental study on braced frame connections is selected and modeled using Abaqus software.  The behavior of the connection is evaluated and compared with test results. In the second phase, a multistory braced building frame is selected and simulated in the Opensees software. In this simulation, connections with gusset plate are modeled in two different methods. In first method, fully pin behavior is considered while in the second method, actual behavior obtained in the previous phase, is modeled. These two different models are analyzed under the same earthquake loading. The results show that the beam to column connection with gusset plate, could transmit significant bending moment and should be classified as semirigid connections. However, it is shown that due to large lateral stiffness of braced frames, modeling the semirigidity has negligible effect on linear and nonlinear behavior of the structures.
Keywords
Steel Connections
Gusset Plate
Semi-Rigid Connection
Steel Braced Frame
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 08 September 2025
  • Revise Date 21 April 2026
  • Accept Date 09 May 2026
  • First Publish Date 09 May 2026
  • Publish Date 22 December 2025