ENEQ650

University of Canterbury
BRB Connections

Learning Outcome:
Understanding of Behaviour BRB Connections
ADVANCED STEEL STRUCTURES

L11 – BRB CONNECTIONS

Gregory MacRae
University of Canterbury
Christchurch
New Zealand

APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS
University of Auckland Labs, Photo MacRae University of Auckland Labs, Photo MacRae, August 2015

14 Hazeldean Rd, Addington, Christchurch 8024

East Side, MacRae, March 2015
APPLICATIONS ISSUES

There have been other cases where interesting

structural forms have been used. These include:

14 Hazeldean Rd, Addington, Christchurch 8024

Google maps, 26 April 2016
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-43.5414792,172.6175664,3a,75y,176.48h,101.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCHSPObPICgQreN15f7VJcQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

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ECCENTRICALLY BRACED FRAME SYSTEMS ECCENTRICALLY BRACED FRAME SYSTEMS

254 Montreal Street, Google Maps

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/@-43.5332996,172.6305943,3a,90y,102.16h,93.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sE79kFljTvhI0cAt-nEevlw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
254 Montreal Street, Photo: MacRae

APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS
University of Canterbury Science Annex
15 February 2016, Photo: MacRae

ECCENTRICALLY BRACED FRAME SYSTEMS

254 Montreal Street, Photo: MacRae

APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS
University of Canterbury Science Annex
15 February 2016, Photos MacRae

University of Canterbury Science Annex

Courtesy BECA

Photos: MacRae

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 15 February 2016, 15 February 2016,
MacRae MacRae

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15 February 2016

http://thepwccentre.co.nz/

APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS
Manchester Street NE Corner of Lichfield and Colombo St
15 February 2016

APPLICATIONS BRB Connections

Ngai Tahu Property Site, 48 Hereford Street, 15 February 2016
References:
1. MacRae – Hand notes.

2. Muir, L. S., Designing Compact Gussets with the Uniform Force Method, Engineering Journal,
American Institute of Steel Construction, First Quarter, 2008, p13-19.
http://www.larrymuir.com/Documents/UFM.pdf

3. Thornton W. A., and Lini C., The Whitmore Section, How to use the Whitmore method for
Tension and Compression Strength Checks, Modern Steel Construction, July 2011.

4. YamCheng2002_Gusset design paper.

5. Steel Innovations 2015_Research Paper_MacRae

6. STESSA Presentation 2015_MacRae

7. Steel Innovations 2015_Research Paper_Westeneng

8. Palmer et al. = Connection of ussett Plate to Frame
9. BRB Design Considerations – MacRae – Approaches to BRB design
10. WCEE Sitler – BRB issues in the past

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BRB Connections BRB Connections

Background Reading: Background Reading:

1. AISC Manual, Part 13, Uniform Force Method 8. Effective Length Factors for Gusset Plate Buckling, Bo Dowswell
2. AISC Design Examples v 14: 9. Poster Crake_Westeneng
http://www.aisc.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=29596 10. Richards – Weld distribution factor
3. See particularly AISC Design Examples Chapter IIC
4. Fussell A. Heavy Brace Gusset Plate Connections for Braced Steel Frames Brace-on-Demand, Website in English,
Steel Construction New Zealand Inc., September 2010. http://61.56.1.142/Website/Default.aspx
5. HERA DCB 56. Gusset Plates and BasePlates
6. Lim PC, Tsai KC Gusset Plate Frame Action
7. Thornton WA. Bracing connections for heavy construction. Eng J, AISC
1984;21(3):139–48.

BRB Connections BRB Connections

Related Reading: Consider this building …

1. MBIE Eccentric Cleat Advisory
2. HERA Eccentric Cleats

BRB Connections BRB Connections

Can you see anything wrong with this

building in Christchurch?
1. MBIE Eccentric Cleat Advisory
2. HERA Eccentric Cleats

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 From: XXX Consultant
Sent: Saturday, 5 September 2015 7:07 a.m.
To: Gregory MacRae
Subject: RE: FW: BRB building in Tuam st

BRB Connections BRB Connections

Hi Greg

I meant to catch up with you yesterday at the seminar, but something came up and I had to leave for the afternoon. I am planning to fly to
Christchurch in the next few weeks and would be keen to give you a call to discuss the design of the Oxford street BRBs and the projects you have
with your students underway as they most likely will help us making right decisions in our design. I would be in fact keen to keep this
communication open in the future and get informed with your future projects from time to time. Let me know if this would be OK with you.

My apologize for not getting back to you earlier. Enclosed please find the response:
1. How do the forces get into the BRB frame? Some force can probably get into the braced bay beam through the shear studs which I am sure will
be applied later. However, it looks as though the shear studs in this bay may be too few to carry both the inertia forces on the BRB side of the frame
and the transfer forces expected due to the different types of structural system (i.e. the BRB and the parallel concrete frame). Very often a drag strut
is used to carry force into the lateral force resisting system thereby activating many bays. This may be intended here but there look to be 2M20 bolts
and a very small beam. It should be noted that we cannot rely on the force from the slab going directly into the column because a gap opens
between the slab and column preventing this. The slab could slide and then carry some load, but slabs are not generally able to reliably carry force
into the column because they are not confined in all directions and spall losing strength.
The force get into the brace through the shear stud welded to the collector beam. The force at each floor is low enough to be able to be transferred
to the collector beam just via the shear studs welded to the collector beam. The highest load was at the top L4 floor where a small contribution of the
adjacent beams and 2 bolts at each side and a bit of compression developing at the face of the column was taken into account, otherwise for all
other floors any participation of adjacent beams which are on either side of the brace was not required.

2. The gusset plate frames into a beam stub. The beam stub is then pinned onto the rest of the beam. (Bolts have not been inserted in the current
photo). I think this is a very nice connection as it minimizes frame action. It is our guess that behind the beam and column webs (out-of-sight) that
there are web doubler plates able to resist the force demand from the thick gusset plate, and the beam stud is also designed for the bending/shear
from the gusset plate as well as the axial loads.
The size of the collector beam was able to be reduced in size being that the braces are transferring the axial loads directly from brace to brace, floor
to floor without the need to transfer high compression loads through the collector beams as it would need to be for Z type of bracing frames. The
areas which are highly loaded were the column/brace and the beam/brace joints where the braces transfer the axial loads through the web of the
beam and/or the web of the column to the brace below. The beam/brace joints in the middle of the collector beams have small axial loads, but large
shear loads. The beam/brace panel joints were checked for high shear and accordingly doubler plates were installed at the lower floors. Equally at
the column/brace joints the transfer of shear was checked and a custom welded section was adopted which web was designed to resist high shears
and axial loads at the column/brace joint.

3. My student is also interested in the column splice which we could not see properly because it was high up.
The column splice is just a welded joint which was designed to full sectional column capacity. It is located at level 3 where the columns is
transferring relatively very small earthquake loads as there is just one floor above the joint.
Regards, XXXX