HERA Report R8-28: Earthquake performance of welded moment resisting connections

Description

Moment Resisting Connections (MRCs), a common feature in a multi-storey building, were seen to fail in a premature and often brittle manner in the Northridge (January 1994) and Kobe (January 1995) earthquakes. These failures have resulted in a great number of investigations into weld performance. This work presented within is a continuation of previous research and further considers the influence of weld imperfections on the integrity of fillet welds and the performance of thicker beam sections.