Avaliação de ligações tubulares tipo T com reforço de chapa lateral

Abstract

This dissertation presents an experimental programme followed by numerical analysis of T tubular joints constituted by SHS cold-formed profiles reinforced with a pair of side plates and its respective unreinforced joints with brace subjects to compression axial forces. This type of reinforcement can be used in tubular joints where the chord and the brace have the same width, with the mostly failure mode located in the chord side wall. The dimensions of the applied reinforcements were varied in thickness and length. A parametric analysis was performed with numerical models calibrated against experimental tests, where the resistances predicted by the numerical models were compared with the ones obtained by the formulations of Eurocode 3 part 1:8, of NBR 16239 and equations proposed by other authors. The available methods for calculation and design of these joints produced scattered results. For the unreinforced joints, the obtained results were very conservative, mainly with the increase of the chord side wall slenderness values. For the reinforced joints where side plates were applied, with the same thickness of the chord, results were, for the great majority, overestimated. At the end of the dissertation, two new equations are proposed for the design of the studied joints that provide results more consistent with those obtained in the experimental and numerical analyzes developed in the present dissertation.