NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF POST-TENSIONED STEEL MOMENT CONNECTIONS AND INVESTIGATION THE ROLE OF CONNECTION PARTS ON ITS BEHAVIOR

Post-tensioned steel connections are new type of connections in which bending moment and shear force at the end of the beam are transmitted to the column using high strength strands. In these connections، energy dissipaters are used for increasing energy dissipation and controlling plastic deformations. In the present paper، the complete numerical model of the experimentally tested connection has been created using ABAQUS software; and cyclic response of this model is compared with the experimental results. Then، simplified numerical model of the connection with the shorter time of modeling and analysis has been created. In this simplified simulation، to model strands، the beam elements are used instead of solid elements، and welding is used instead of bolts for connecting the energy dissipater angles to the beam. A good agreement between cyclic response of numerical model and experimental result was obtained. Also، the results of the full model and simplified model are very close to each other. Therefore، the use of simplified model is confidence and it needs less time for analysis. In addition، the size of software output data is much less. Because، the construction of laboratory samples needs more time and cost compared to computer simulations، therefore، the numerical models can be created simply for modeling the connections with post-tensioned and energy dissipation systems، and effects of these systems on the connection behavior can be studied.