The use of steel flush end-plate moment connection is practiced in the construction of the light steel frames around the world particularly in parts of Europe and US. In the past most research was concentrated on studying the behavior of the flush end-plate connection subjected to only monotonic type loadings. The majority of that research carried out such investigation through experimental programs. Although experimental results reveal the behavior of such system to some extent, but the cost of using the numerical techniques such as finite element for the analysis appears to be much less and takes not long time and effort in comparison with the test program.
In this study, the numerical behavior of flush end-plate connection using finite element method is investigated. The moment-rotation characteristic of the connection when subjected to cyclic loading is obtained. The numerical results obtained in this study are compared with the experimental results of other researchers. Some of the pertinent parameters effecting on the overall behavior of the connection as well as the design equations obtained from the method of yield line analysis are discussed.
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