The role of connections in the behavior of civil engineering structures

Giovanni Muciaccia

When dealing with connections, the common feeling of designers consists in that they are facing a detailing issue only. In other words, connections are generally designed for the actions the connected members are transferring to each other, as derived by the structural analysis, rather than for the actions which can be effectively transferred by the same connection, depending on geometric or constructional boundaries.
While joints in steel structures are traditionally conceived accounting also for production capabilities, erection sequence and desired stiffness, slightly or totally different approaches were adopted in concrete, in timber and in mixed or composite steel and concrete structures.
Consequently, through the decades, different theories were formulated to investigate the behavior of the connections and the local load transfer mechanisms in diffusion zones, so that is still commonly felt we are up against a completely different behavior when assessing, for instance, a steel-to-steel or a steel-to-concrete connection. However, common principles may be identified for connections in different base materials toward a unified approach in the field.
The seminar will focus on basic principles of connections behavior for static and cyclic loading, also introducing the dependency on the properties of each product, when relevant, and discussing some recent research works carried out at the Department.

Further information:
federica.migliaccio@polimi.it
roberto.fedele@polimi.it