The behaviour of industrial steel storage racks is more difficult to predict in comparison with the one of the traditional steel carpentry frames, mainly for some rack peculiarities, such as the use of thin-walled members, the presence of regular perforation systems and the non-linear behaviour of joints. A proper characterization of members and joints is hence of paramount importance for the rack design analysis. Joints play a key role in rack behaviour: lateral stability in the down-aisle direction is, in fact, usually provided by the sole degree of continuity offered by beam-to-column joints and base-plate connections. Usually, manufacturers and designers appraise joints behaviour by means of expensive and time-consuming experimental tests. To overcome these drawbacks, an important role could be played by the use of suitable refined finite element models to be calibrated on the basis of the experimental data. The paper presents and discusses the main features and results of several numerical analyses performed on a commercial beam-to-column rack joint. Research outcomes allow for identifying key factors affecting the joint response stressing out critical issues associated with the modelling phase.
BEAM-TO-COLUMN JOINTS FOR STEEL STORAGE RACKS: REFINED FINITE ELEMENT MODELS
C. Bernuzzi;M. Simoncelli
2019-01-01
Abstract
The behaviour of industrial steel storage racks is more difficult to predict in comparison with the one of the traditional steel carpentry frames, mainly for some rack peculiarities, such as the use of thin-walled members, the presence of regular perforation systems and the non-linear behaviour of joints. A proper characterization of members and joints is hence of paramount importance for the rack design analysis. Joints play a key role in rack behaviour: lateral stability in the down-aisle direction is, in fact, usually provided by the sole degree of continuity offered by beam-to-column joints and base-plate connections. Usually, manufacturers and designers appraise joints behaviour by means of expensive and time-consuming experimental tests. To overcome these drawbacks, an important role could be played by the use of suitable refined finite element models to be calibrated on the basis of the experimental data. The paper presents and discusses the main features and results of several numerical analyses performed on a commercial beam-to-column rack joint. Research outcomes allow for identifying key factors affecting the joint response stressing out critical issues associated with the modelling phase.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
