Abstract With the advances in computational analysis techniques and development of new design methods, new interests have arisen in structural engineering. In the last few years, with the increasing numbers of terrorist attacks, the study of robustness, progressive structural collapse and ultimate resistance of structures has grown exponentially, with various studies being published all over the world. In order to perform this study through computational analysis, it was necessary to develop a calibrated numerical model capable of representing the behaviour of structures in their final stage of resistance. This article presents an evaluation of semi-rigid connections through a numerical model considering the implementation of collapse and damage progression criteria calibrated against experimental tests. Afterwards, a parametric study was developed by varying the bolt diameters and endplate thickness of a flush endplate semi-rigid connection. The main parameters and criteria that rules the simulation of flush end-plate joints subject to damage were assessed, allowing that many different kind of studies with similar components could be performed, such as impact, explosion and column loss analysis. As an outcome, the bending moment-rotation curves of these connections are presented and it is shown that those with a larger bolt diameter were able to produce greater rotation, while an increase in the endplate thickness was able to provide a greater bending moment capacity.

As normas atuais de projeto de estruturas em aço inoxidável, como o Eurocódigo 3, parte 1.4 (2006), são, em grande parte, baseadas em analogias assumidas com o comportamento de estruturas desenvolvidas com aço carbono. A ruptura da seção transversal representa um dos estados-limites últimos usualmente verificados para elementos estruturais submetidos a tensões normais de tração. Esse artigo apresenta uma investigação para se avaliar a resistência à tração de elementos aparafusados em aço carbono e aço inoxidável. Os resultados são discutidos e comparados em termos de distribuição de tensões, curvas carga-deslocamento, entre outros. Esses resultados foram comparados com as recomendações de projeto do Eurocódigo 3, para aço carbono e aço inoxidável, respectivamente. Essa investigação indicou que, quando o aço inoxidável é utilizado em certas aplicações da engenharia estrutural, como ligações submetidas a esforços de tração, o critério atual de dimensionamento, baseado em deformações-limites precisa de ser reavaliado, especialmente devido às diferenças elevadas de tensões de escoamento e de ruptura, respectivamente.

Current stainless steel design codes, like the Eurocode 3, part 1.4, (2006), are still largely based on analogies with carbon steel structural behavior. The net section rupture represents one of the ultimate limit states usually verified for structural elements submitted to normal tension stress. An investigation aiming to evaluate the tension capacity of carbon and stainless steel bolted structural elements was performed and in this article, the results are discussed and compared in terms of stress distribution, and force-displacement curves, among others. The result assessment was done by comparisons to the Eurocode 3 (2003) provisions for carbon and stainless steels. The investigation indicated that when stainless steel is used in certain structural engineering applications like joints under tension forces, the current design criteria based on deformation limits need to be re-evaluated, especially due to the differences in the yields for ultimate deformation and stress ratios.