Reliability of full-strength end-plate connections: design criteria and Monte Carlo simulation

In the seismic design of steel frames, beam-to-column joints are generally designed as full strength joints in order to avoid their engagement in the plastic range promoting the location of plastic hinges at the ends of the connected beams. In this paper, the reliability of the criteria to design full strength beam-to- column joints is investigated. In particular, in the first part of the work, starting from a probabilistic analyses accounting for random material variability of connecting elements, the reliability of the design criteria suggested by codes is analysed. Successively, on the basis of the obtained results, a new design criterion able to take into account both the random material variability and the overstrength exhibited by the beam before the occurrence of local buckling is proposed.