The effect of stiffener on behavior of reduced beam section connections in steel moment-resisting frames

Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections are a new type of connection which have been used in steel moment-resisting frames since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This study is primarily aimed at analyzing the effects of suitable web stiffeners on preventing the deterioration effect of the hysteresis curve for RBS connections. Results of more than 183 nonlinear finite element analyses on different IPE sections with radius cut, straight cut, and drilled-flange RBS connection showed that different web stiffeners considerably contribute to the enhancement of seismic performance of RBS connections. In this research, the effects of factors such as the geometry and the number of the stiffeners, the distance between the stiffener and column side, and the length and thickness of the stiffener on the seismic performance of RBS connections were also studied.