Interaction of flange and web slenderness, overstrength factor and proposed stiffener arrangements for long links

This paper is aimed to investigate the interaction of flange and web slenderness ratio, overstrength factor and also to improve the behavior of long links. Pursuant to these goals, 150 numerical models of different long links were developed and exposed to cyclic loading protocol mandated by AISC 341. Link length ratio, flange and web slenderness and stiffener configurations are selected as parameters. The results revealed that the flange slenderness ratio can be relaxed to 0.38(E/F-y)(0.5) for long links if the web slenderness ratio is <1.5 (E/F-y)(0.5). The shear capacity of long links decreases as the link length ratio increases. The results of shear capacity showed the overstrength factor required by AISC 341 overestimates the shear capacity; therefore, two different equations to predict the overstrength factor for long links are proposed. The stiffener configuration recommended by AISC 341 limits the potential of long links. To mitigate this drawback, different stiffener configurations are proposed to empower the behavior of long links. Using additional one stiffener at each link ends can enhance shear strength, energy dissipation and plastic rotation capacities by 25%, 447% and 322%, respectively. When two additional stiffeners are introduced, these ratios modify to 29%, 479% and 332%. Moreover, rupture index values are utilized to verify proposed stiffener configurations further.