Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005

www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Seismic behavior and retrofit of steel moment connections

considering slab effects
Young-Ju Kim a,
, Sang-Hoon Oh b, Tae-Sup Moon a
a
Department of Architectural engineering, Hanyang University,17, Haengdang-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul,133-791, South Korea
b
Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology, 79, Youngcheon Dongtan, Hwasung, Kyoungkido, 445-810, South Korea

Received 29 January 2004; received in revised form 19 July 2004; accepted 27 July 2004

Abstract

A series of five full-scale subassemblages were tested to investigate the contribution of the slabs and the effects of three types of
retrofit methods, no weld access hole, horizontal stiffener, and cover plate. The test included one bare steel specimen and four
composite specimens with floor slab. The results that emphasize the influence of the composite slab on connection behavior and
specific comments on the retrofit scheme are presented. The test result indicated that the strains near the bottom flange of the
composite beam connections were several times larger than those of the bare steel beam connections, resulting in a higher poten-
tial of fracture. Therefore, the slab effects are detrimental to the seismic behavior of the connection and should be considered in
the design. Horizontal stiffener detail of three retrofit schemes demonstrated very good potential in improving the ductility of
composite connections in existing buildings.
# 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Slab effect; Retrofit; Deformation capacity; Strain concentration; Weld access hole; Horizontal stiffener

1. Introduction
During the Northridge earthquake in California in
1994 and the Kobe earthquake in 1995, many steel
buildings suffered from fracturing in the welded
moment connections [1,2]. The performance of steel
buildings during these earthquakes has raised questions
regarding the reliability of the current connection
method. The current connection design may be suscep-
tible to failure in an earthquake. Investigation of these
fractured connections indicated that most of the frac-
tures occurred at the bottom flange. After the earth-
quake, many different types of connection methods
have been suggested to solve the problem both in
Japan and the US [3,4].
However, relatively little testing has studied the effects
of a composite slab on steel moment connection beha-
vior under cyclic loads. Since an actual steel building

nection to date were not yet fully uncovered for the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-2-2290-0312; fax: +82-2-2296-
4145.
E-mail address: kyj282@empal.com (Y.-J. Kim).
0141-0296/$ - see front matter # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2004.07.017
has floor slabs that have strength and are bonded to
supporting beams from full to partial composite actions,
their actual behavior under an earthquake load will be
different from that expected from bare steel connections.
An illustration of composite beam to column con-
nections subjected to seismic load is shown in Fig. 1.
Considering the effect of the concrete slabs, the neutral
axis moves toward the top flange when subjected to
positive beam bending (concrete slab under com-
pression), and, consequently, this causes the strain on
the bottom flange to be much larger than that of the
top flange. This strain concentration on the bottom
flange may lead to premature failure of the connection,
thus reducing the deformation capacity of composite
beam connections. Most beam to column connections
were designed on the assumption that composite beam
connections with slab have the same deformation
capacity as bare steel beam connections without slab.
The slab effects on the seismic behavior of the con-
case of a laterally loaded structure. In addition, less
testing has been directed towards retrofit methods for
1994 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005

Nomenclature

f’c Compressive stress of concrete slab

Ki Initial stiffness
Mmax Maximum flexural moment
Mpc Plastic moment of composite beam
Mps Plastic moment of bare steel beam
V 1, V 2 Vertical displacement at connection by panel zone deformation
W Absorbed energy
ddt Total displacement at loading point
h Target rotation angle
hsmax Maximum skeleton rotation angle
hpanel Panel zone deformation angle
hsp Plastic rotation angle corresponding to plastic moment of steel beam
Rlhl Cumulative rotation angle

existing moment connections. This study was also
undertaken to investigate the effects of relatively inex-
pensive and nonintrusive retrofit procedures on connec-
tion performance.
In this study, which focuses on the presence of a
composite slab which may affect the fracture of the
beam bottom flange in the beam to column connec-
tions which occurred in the Kobe earthquake, a frac-
ture in the composite beam was reproduced
experimentally and the effects of the presence of floor
slabs were investigated. This study also investigated the
effects of the seismic retrofit methods for the enhance-
ment of deformation capacity of existing composite
connections designed prior to the Kobe earthquake.
2. Previous studies of composite beam connections
Several studies on positive effects of a composite slab
were reported. To enhance the ductility of beam to col-
umn connections of existing buildings, Chen et al. pro-
posed a simple method which trims the bottom flange
of the steel beam slightly [5]. Test results indicated that
Fig. 1. Strain distributions of composite beams.
the concrete slab may contribute another 16% to the
connection strength and the plastic rotation angles of
composite specimens were more than 0.04 rad. Uang
et al. investigated the effectiveness of using RBS and
welded haunch for seismic retrofit of pre-Northridge
steel moment connections through cyclic testing [6]. A
test result showed that the composite slab only
increased the beam positive flexural strength and no
brittle fracture occurred. In addition, it was found that
lateral-torsional buckling was prevented due to the bra-
cing effect of the slab. Civjan et al. stated that the com-
posite beam connections with floor slabs significantly
reduced the severity of local and lateral buckling of the
beam and corresponded to the higher-achieved overall
plastic rotations and higher-peak attained moments
compared to bare steel beam connections [7,8]. Other
studies of composite connections were reported [9–12].
The tests clearly showed that without early fracture or
detrimental effects, the presence of the slab was ben-
eficial to specimen performance by enhancing beam
stability and delaying strength degradation.
On the contrary, some negative effects were noted
with composite specimens. A bare steel and two par-
tially composite specimens designed as 35 and 55%
composite were tested by Leon et al. [13] and Hajjar
et al. [14]. According to these tests, the presence of a
composite slab may increase stress and strain demands
on the bottom flange weld and be conjectured that the
slab could cause an earlier fracture at the bottom
flange weld, thereby degrading connection performance
and nullifying any positive effects of the RBS. Okada
et al. [15] and Oh et al. [16] conducted experimental
and analytical studies on the deformation capacity of
the beam to box column connections with and without
slabs under cyclic loading. The results of the tests and
analysis indicated that the deformation capacity of
composite beams was nearly half of that of steel beams
 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 2. Typical Japanese connection.
without slabs, and these results demonstrated earlier
fractures of bottom flanges of composite beams as
shown in the Kobe Earthquake.
3. Test program
3.1. Test specimen
Modern steel moment resisting frames in Japan are
usually constructed using square tube columns and
wide flange beams known as a ‘‘through-diaphragm
connection’’, due to their excellent cross-sectional
properties to resist biaxial bending loads as shown in
Fig. 2 [2,17]. Top and bottom square tube columns
were welded to each other using a 25 mm thick com-
plete penetration diaphragm. The beam flanges were
welded to the diaphragms instead of a column flange,
and a standard web access hole was used. CJP single
bevel groove welds were used to connect the beam flan-
ges to the diaphragm plates, and fillet-welds were used
to connect the beam web to the column. The root of
the CJP groove welds was located on the interior side
of both the top and the bottom flange. Gas metal arc
welding (GMAW) with CO2 shielding was used to fab-
ricate the welded joints of test specimens. A solid elec-
trode designated as ER70S-3 was used in all welding.
All subassemblages were designed as an exterior con-
nection. Test specimens were constructed using a built-
up square tube column Box-45045022 and wide
flange beams H-6122021323 with a through-
diaphragm connection (Fig. 3). A relatively strong col-
umn was used to ensure that the beams could initiate
the development of a plastic hinge mechanism during
cyclic loading before damage develops in the column.
Also, incorporating a rigid panel zone Box-
4504502232 may significantly reduce the contri-
bution of panel zone shear deformation to mode of
failure.
To simulate the actual steel building, four side beams
were designed at each column web and each side of
loading part, and were fully bonded to the slab using
22 mm diameter shear studs. To make fully composite
1995
Fig. 3. Typical Specimen (SP-2; Standard).
action between the beam and the slab, two rows of
studs were welded to the top surface of the top flange
at 200 mm spacing. The concrete slab was designed
with common concrete having a design strength of 24
MPa, which was 200 mm thick and 2500 mm width.
Also, the concrete slab was provided with longitudinal
and transverse steel reinforcement. For reinforcement,
D13 (13 mm diameter steel reinforcing bars) having a
design strength of 400 MPa were placed transversely at
200 mm spaced over the entire length of the concrete
slab and were located at both 30 mm from the top and
from the bottom of the slab. In addition, a mould plate
for slip prevention between the beam flange and the
concrete slab was installed as shown in Fig. 3. The
mould plate was chosen so that the slab would contrib-
ute more strength to the connection, thereby simulating
a more severe strain condition. All steel material is
SM490 and a list of material properties used for speci-
mens is given in Table 1.
A total of five specimens were manufactured as
shown in Table 2, and the specimens are largely div-
ided into two series.
3.1.1. Series I—Conventional specimens
Series I consists of a bare steel specimen (SP-1) and a
composite specimen (SP-2) with concrete floor slab.
They have a conventional type of the weld access hole
in their beam-to-column connections (Fig. 2). SP-2 is
the standard specimen in this study. The detailed objec-
tives of the tests using series I are: (1) to demonstrate
1996 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005

Table 1
Steel material characteristics

Member Yield strength (Mpa) Tensile strength (Mpa) Yield ratio (%) Elongation (%)
Beam flange (H-6122021323) 364 532 68 27
Beam web (H-6122021323) 390 541 72 26
Column (Box-45045022) 395 563 70 26
Diaphragm (PL-50050025) 378 565 67 27
Panel zone (Box-4504502232) 382 548 69 27

fractures of the conventional type connections that
occurred in the Kobe earthquake; (2) to investigate the
deformation capacity of composite beams for fracture;
and, (3) to make clear the effects of slabs on the defor-
mation capacity of composite beams, compared with
that of bare steel beam connections.
3.1.2. Series II—Retrofit specimens
Series II consists of three composite specimens which
used the design concept for seismic retrofit methods to
improve their deformation capacity. As shown in Fig. 4,
the three retrofit schemes include no weld access hole
(SP-3), horizontal stiffener (SP-4), and cover plate (SP-5).
3.1.2.1. No weld access hole scheme (SP-3). Many stu-
dies reported the effectiveness of no weld access hole
(Fig. 4(a)), which could exhibit excellent seismic per-
formance in steel beam connections with or without
concrete floor slabs [3,15,18]. But no testing studied the
effects of this retrofit scheme on existing steel moment
connection. In general, the existence of a weld access
hole is required for CJP welding of the beam flange.
However, it was discovered that it was a primary factor
for premature brittle fracture due to the influence of
the section loss of the web, where the geometry chan-
ges abruptly and the joint efficiency (that is, moment
transfer efficiency) deceases [19]. To prevent these
defects, the no weld access hole retrofit was developed.

Table 2
List of specimens

Specimen Composite or bare steel Parameter Connection type Location of retrofit

SP-1 Bare steel Without slab Conventional type –
SP-2 Composite Standard Conventional type –
SP-3 Composite No weld access hole Retrofit type Bottom flange
SP-4 Composite Horizontal stiffener Retrofit type Bottom flange
SP-5 Composite Bottom plate Retrofit type Bottom flange

Fig. 4. Schematic illustrations of retrofit specimens.

 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005 1997

As shown in Fig. 4(b), the welding of a new web plate

without an access hole was involved after the removal
of the beam web part including a weld access hole and
the backing bar. CJP single bevel and square groove
welds were used to connect the beam to the new web
plate.

3.1.2.2. Horizontal stiffener scheme (SP-4). This

scheme was to strengthen the steel beam near the wel-
ded connection by welding a horizontal stiffener to the
beam bottom flange (Fig. 4(c)). Sugimoto et al. proved
that the horizontal stiffener scheme (that is, wing plate
connection, see ref. [20]) can successfully prevent
premature rupture by neutralizing the negative effect of Fig. 5. Test setup.
the weld access hole, backing bars and run-off tabs and
exhibit large deformation capacity. Ideally, the
loaded at an assumed pin at its midspan. The test setup
strengthened section of the beam would remain prim-
is shown in Fig. 5.
arily elastic during plastic hinge movement of the
The loading protocol prescribed a quasi-static cyclic
beam, thereby limiting the stress in the welds.
pattern defined in terms of a rotation angle (h) (Fig. 6).
In Fig. 6, the target rotation angle h is the rotation
3.1.2.3. Cover plate scheme (SP-5). The cover plate
angle of only the pure beam with a displacement d that
scheme effectively strengthens the connections so that
is divided with the distance (L ¼ 3275 mm) from col-
flexural yielding of the beam at the end of the cover
umn face to loading point at the total displacement ddt,
plate can provide the connection ductility [21]. The
excluding displacement V1 and displacement V2 by the
connection was usually used with either top and bot-
tom cover plate or cover plate at the bottom flange connection panel zone deformation angle hpanel. The
only. In this study, a bottom flange only cover plate plastic rotation angle hsp corresponding to the plastic
was considered primarily as a retrofit to existing moment of bare steel beam, Mps , was calculated, and
moment connections. In addition, the specimen, SP-5, this rotation angle was incremented at 2hsp , 4hsp , 6hsp ,
involved slot welding to the beam flange around the and so on after loading at the elastic rotation. This his-
weld access hole as shown in Fig. 4(d). The concept of tory was applied to each specimen until failure
this scheme was to transfer the stress to the bottom occurred.
cover plate through slot welding. Moreover, it was The specimen was equipped with displacement trans-
reinforced with a vertical rib halfway up the beam ducers and strain gauges to measure deformation con-
depth. There was a fundamental difference of retrofit tributions of different parts and measure strain
scheme between this connection and the typical cover distributions, respectively. The measurement position
plate, due to the existence of a slot welding. of the strain gauge was shown in Fig. 7. Four sections,
The concrete slab in existing buildings presents prob- A, B, C and D that are respectively 75, 325, 575 and
lem for economic considerations and work convenience 825 mm distance from the column face are the posi-
in seismic retrofit schemes. Unless the concrete slab tions for strain measurement. In particular, section A
around the column is removed, it is difficult to retrofit
was located in line of the toe of weld access hole so
the top flange and its welded joint. Also, because the
that the stress situation near the weld access hole could
majority of reported damage occurred in the bottom
be investigated in detail.
flange, it was speculated that retrofit only at the bot-
tom flange may be sufficient to significantly improve
the performance of the connections. Therefore, all spe-
cimens included in Series II were retrofitted at only the
bottom flange of the beam.

3.2. Test setup

The test setup was designed to simulate the bound-

ary conditions of a beam-to-column connection sub-
assembly in a moment resisting frame under typical
lateral loading. Thus, the column was assumed to be
pin-supported at midstorey points, and the beam was Fig. 6. Target rotation angle h.
1998 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 7.
4. Test result
4.1. Global behavior and failure mode
For the purpose of discussion of the test results,
moment versus rotation angle relationships (h) were
plotted in Fig. 8, where Mcp (=2173 kN.m) is the cal-
culated plastic moment for composite beams and Mps
(=1423 kN.m) is that for bare steel beam without slabs
[22,23]. Here, h is the rotation angle of only the pure
beam. m, ! and # shows the point where fracture,
local buckling and crack initiation of connections
occurred, respectively. A summary of experimental
results for the five tests is given in Table 3. Photo-
graphs of all specimens after testing are shown in
Fig. 9.
In all specimens with composite beam connections,
excluding the bare steel beam connection, the bottom
flange failed. The bare steel beam connection (SP-1)
showed stable hysteresis behavior and good defor-
mation capacity, however, the connection failed by
fracture of the top flange upon the negative bending of
Fig. 8. Moment- rotation angle relationships (m: fracture; !: local buckling; #: crack initiation).
Position of strain gauges.
6hsp . The initial crack developed at the center of the
flange from the toe of the weld access hole. The crack
progressed outward along the flange width during suc-
cessive loading, followed by a sudden break of the
entire beam flange. The initial crack propagation was
ductile, and the final was brittle (Fig. 9(a)).
In standard composite specimen (SP-2), although
maximum bending moment increased compared with
the bare steel beam specimen (SP-1), deformation
capacity appeared small due to the premature brittle
failure of the beam bottom flange. The initial ductile
crack was located in the area between the weld fusion
zone on the outside flange surface and the end of the
access hole cut on the inside flange surface, which was
similar to the damage which occurred during the Kobe
earthquake. After this ductile crack reached its critical
size, the brittle fracture occurred as shown in Fig. 9(b).
SP-3 specimen failed in the bottom flange beneath
the weld of the end of the new web plate abruptly, as
shown in Fig. 9(c). The reason might be the unsatisfac-
tory workmanship of the connection. The interruption
of the web stiffener near the connections led to the
 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005 1999

Table 3
Test results

Specimen Bending direction Mmax [kN.m] Ki [kN.m/rad.] h smax [rad.] W [KN.m. rad.] Fracture position
SP-1 Positive (+) 1800 148000 0.052 202 Top flange
Negative () 1560 152000 0.036
SP-2 Positive (+) 2490 432000 0.026 134 Bottom flange
Negative () 1900 297000 0.040
SP-3 Positive (+) 2600 552000 0.025 172 Bottom flange
Negative () 1900 294000 0.041
SP-4 Positive (+) 3260 447000 0.037 405 Bottom flange
Negative () 2190 246500 0.057
SP-5 Positive (+) 3010 497000 0.026 195 Bottom flange
Negative () 2110 311000 0.038

complete penetration weld between the beam bottom

flange and the new web plate becoming difficult and
less reliable. Although it was retrofitted with a no weld
access hole, the hysteresis characteristic of the specimen
SP-3 exhibited nearly similar to the specimen SP-2.
Specimen SP-4 exhibited an excellent hysteretic beha-
vior over all other composite specimens through the
prevention of stress concentration of the fuse zone
including the toe of the weld access hole and heat-affec-
ted zone, with the horizontal stiffener remaining elastic.
Moreover, upon the negative bending of 6hsp amplitude,
the local buckling occurred in the horizontal stiffener
end, followed by a degradation of the strength. This
finding implies that, in the horizontal stiffener scheme,
a strengthened area on the beam near the column face
can provide reliable energy dissipation through devel-
oping the plastic hinge in the horizontal stiffener end
even if the concrete floor slab is added to the connec-
tion (Fig. 9(d)).
SP-5 induced stress distribution of the bottom flange
around the connection by the bottom cover plate. But,
eventually, a brittle fracture occurred at the bottom
flange outer edge upon the positive bending of 6hsp
amplitude (Fig. 9(d)). After the fracture of the connec-
tion, the vertical rib was removed for detailed inspection
of the failure mode of the connection and it was exam-
ined. The crack initiated at the welding part between the
diaphragm and beam flange and progressed inward
along the flange width through the slot welding. The
weld was also examined, and a lack of fusion was also
found at the slot welding. Therefore, good workman-
ship and sound welding quality are still required in
order to provide a reliable welded connection.

4.2. Ultimate strength and stiffness

The data in Table 3 showed that the average

maximum strength of composite specimens under posi-
tive bending was 1.39 times the maximum strength
under negative bending. When the concrete slab is
Fig. 9. Photograph of specimens after testing. under positive bending, the maximum strength of the
2000 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 10. Definition of maximum skeleton rotation angle and skeleton curve.
composite specimens was 1.58 times the maximum
strength of the bare steel beam on average. The ratio of
attained positive moments to the calculated plastic
capacity of the unreinforced composite specimens (SP-2
and SP-3) was about 1.17 on average. The plastic
capacity of the sections of these composite specimens
was computed assuming an effective concrete stress of
1.3 f’c [22,23]. The results showed that the computed
plastic capacity of the composite section effectively esti-
mated the actual plastic capacity. However, the average
maximum positive moment of the reinforced composite
specimens (SP-4 and SP-5) was about 1.44 times great-
er than the estimated plastic capacity. This showed that
the contribution of the floor slab added considerable
extra strength to the ultimate strength of the beam.
In the previous test, the presence of the concrete slab
increased the positive flexural strength of the beam by
about 10% on average [6]. Composite specimens exhib-
ited a slight increase in initial elastic stiffness and
strength to the effect of 10–30% over similar bare steel
specimens [7,8]. Another study reported that the peak
load resisted by the composite slab was developed
between 4 and 17% larger than the corresponding bare
steel counterparts [9]. The results of the previous
research indicated that the slab did not, in fact, pro-
duce a significant increase in the ultimate strength of
the beam. Note, however, that the beams used in their
studies were relatively deep (i.e. W30 to W36). Thus,
the influence of the slab on the strength and stiffness of
the girder was assumed to be relatively small when
compared to more typical composite beams (i.e. W18
to W24) similar to specimens used in this study.
Assuming the thickness of the slab does not decrease
linearly with the depth of the beam, it is speculated
that shallow beams are potentially more susceptible to
composite slab effects because of a great neutral axis
shift.
The data in Table 3 showed that initial stiffness of
composite specimens under positive bending exhibited a
significant increase to the effect of 45 to 88% over initial
stiffness under positive bending. When the concrete slab
was under positive bending, the initial stiffness of the
composite specimens was 3 times that of the bare
steel beam on average due to the composite action of
the floor slab. The increase of the initial stiffness in
composite connections almost developed deformation
of the connection in the plastic range rather than the
elastic range. For this reason, composite beam con-
nections exhibited a premature fracture due to the
early plastic strain concentration.
4.3. Deformation capacity
Concepts of a skeleton curve and the Bauschinger
curve have been commonly adopted when characteriz-
ing the deformation capacity of steel members sub-
jected to load reversal in Japan [24]. As shown in
Fig. 10, the moment versus rotation angle curve of
steel members subjected to cyclic loading can be
decomposed into the skeleton part, the Bauschinger
part, and the elastically unloading part. The skeleton
curve is constructed from moment versus rotation
angle hysteresis loops (i.e. the solid lines in Fig. 10).
The fundamental hypothesis behind the obtained skel-
eton curve for a cyclic loading test is the same as the
curve obtained from a monotonic loading test, and the
skeleton is thus useful to compare the ductility capacity
of hysteresis curves of specimens of various types [24].
The deformation capacity of each specimen was
compared using the maximum skeleton rotation angle
(hsmax ) which is in positive and negative bending state in
moment versus rotation relationships. The skeleton
curves under positive bending are shown in Fig. 10,
and hsmax is shown in Table 3. hsmax is a value evaluated
at 80% (0.8 Mmax) of the ultimate strength of the speci-
men after it reached ultimate strength in skeleton
curves. hsmax of the composite specimen SP-2 under
positive bending was 50% when compared to the bare
steel specimen (SP-1). Due to the composite action of
the slab, SP-2 had smaller ductility than that of bare
steel specimen, SP-1. hsmax of Series II specimens SP-3,
SP-4, and SP-5 with retrofit details were 48, 71 and
50% when compared to specimen SP-1. hsmax of SP-4
was 42% greater than that of the typical composite
 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 11. Plastic neutral axis and strain distributions.
specimen SP-2. When the slab was under tension, the
deformation capacity of the horizontal stiffener speci-
men SP-4 was also higher than that of the other com-
posite specimens, and even that of the bare steel beam
specimen SP-1 without a slab.
Absorbed energy was also evaluated. Absorbed
energy (W) of all specimens is shown in Table 3. the
energy of the composite specimens was 66–201% when
compared to specimen SP-1 without a slab. Especially,
specimen SP-4 was two times higher than SP-1.
5. Discussion
5.1. Composite effects of slabs (Series I—Conventional
specimens)
Test results exhibited that, while composite connec-
tions developed higher moment than bare steel connec-
tions, composite connections needed more local
deformation capacity than bare steel connections need.
The effect of the floor slabs was investigated in this sec-
tion based on the results of the measure strain distribu-
tions.
5.1.1. Strain concentration and plastic neutral axis
The concrete floor slabs may increase the positive
flexural capacity, raising the beam neutral axis and,
therefore, creating a large strain in the bottom flange.
2001
It was found that the strain on the bottom flange was
several times larger than that of the top flange in the
previous studies [5,15]. Focusing on these results, the
plastic neutral axis of bending in the beams was esti-
mated from strain behavior obtained at section A. The
plastic neutral axis at section A of all specimens under
cyclic load reversals is shown in Fig. 11(a). The pos-
ition of the neutral axis can be obtained by using the
distance ratio of the height of the beam depth and the
strain increment of both bottom and top beam flange.
As shown in Fig. 11(a), the plastic neutral axis of SP-1
is located in the vicinity of the center of the beam web,
but that of SP-2 is shown to be near the top flange
level. Consequently, this caused the strain on the bot-
tom flange to be much larger than that of the top
flange (Fig. 11(b)). As shown in Fig. 11(b), while the
strain of SP-1 showed a symmetric balance for the top
and bottom flange, the test result of SP-2 exhibited that
it was concentrated in the bottom flange. The strain of
the bottom flange for SP-1 and SP-2 under positive
bending is shown in Fig. 11(c). At the same cumulative
rotation angle, Rlhl ¼ 0:1 rad, the strain of the com-
posite beam (SP-2) was 4.4 times higher than that of
the bare steel beam (SP-1).
5.1.2. Moment transfer efficiency of beam web
A square tube column had two webs at each side but
no web at the center where the beam web was connec-
ted. Therefore, the web of the box column was signifi-
2002 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 12. Deformation of column flange and strain distribution of
connection.
cantly less effective in transferring bending moment due
to the out-of-deformation of the column flanges and
the loss of the web sections by the weld access hole
(Fig. 12(a)). Stress increase at the end of the beam is
influenced by the efficiency in transmitting the stress in
the web of beam through beam to column joint. More-
over, it was reported that the beam near the connection
developed a smaller strength than the beam away from
the connection due to the decrease of the web moment
transfer as shown in Fig. 12(b) [19].
To investigate the effect of web moment transfer,
moment versus curvature relationship was used. The
curvature was obtained from the gross sectional aver-
age strain of a beam flange. Next, the skeleton curve of
a curvature constructed from moment versus curvature
relationships and moment versus monotonic curvature
relationships at each section under positive bending is
shown in Fig. 13. In Fig. 13(a), the moment of section
A in bare steel specimen SP-1 appeared 8, 11, and 13%
slightly smaller than sections B, C and D at the same
curvature, respectively. This means that the web con-
nection did not transfer its full share of the beam
moment, resulting in strain concentration of the beam
flange. The moment of section A in composite speci-
men SP-2 exhibited 35, 30, and 36% significantly smal-
ler than sections B, C and D at the same curvature,
respectively (Fig. 13(b)). The decrement of the strength
of SP-2 was about 3 times of that of SP-1, and this
exhibited that composite connection decreased the web
moment transfer compared to bare steel connection
due to the composite effect of the slab. Therefore, the
deformation was concentrated near the beam bottom
flange where the constraint was minimal. More detailed
studies are required for these results.
5.1.3. Reduction of plastic zone
Fig. 14(a) shows the distributions of the curvature in
the beam’s longitudinal direction at the completion of
the peak moment, and it was assumed that there was
almost no curvature change from section D to loading
point and it accordingly was simplified into a linear
line. Fig. 14(b) shows the ratio of the curvature of each
section to the summation of those for all sections. SP-1
had a curvature distribution that changed gradually
from section A to section D. But in SP-2, the curvature
distribution from section A to section B changed
exceedingly and the curvatures from section B to sec-
tion D were shown to be very small compared with sec-
tion A. These results also can be seen clearly in
Fig. 14(b).
Fig. 15 shows the absorbed energy in each section of
all specimens. The energy obtained from moment ver-
sus curvature hysteresis loops. This plot exhibited that,
in the case of SP-2, the ratio of the energy absorbed in
section A to that in all sections was near 80%, while, in
the case of SP-1, it was a ratio of 59%. Also, while the
energy of SP-1 showed a symmetric balance between
the positive and negative bending, the test result of SP-
2 exhibited that it was concentrated in the positive
bending direction.
These results indicated that, for bare steel connec-
tions, the deformation was relatively well distributed
over the entire section, but, for composite connections,
it had higher local ductility demand in a narrow plasiti-
fied zone of the beam. In other words, it can be under-
stood that the plastic zone of composite beams was
reduced while bare steel beams secured a wide plastic
zone.
5.2. Effect of seismic retrofit (Series II—Retrofit
specimens)
In previous studies, no weld access hole connections
showed outstanding performance in laboratory testing
due to the high efficiency of web moment transfer
[15,19]. While typical details for new construction used
no weld access hole scheme in both the top and bottom
web, the retrofit of Specimen SP-3 used it only in the
bottom web. In Fig. 13(c), the moment of section A in
specimen SP-3 exhibited 18, 8, and 7% smaller than
sections B, C, and D, at the same curvature, respect-
ively. The decrement of the strength of SP-3 was sig-
nificantly smaller than that of SP-2, exhibiting the ratio
of 30, 36 and 35%. The decrement of the strength of
SP-3 was slightly smaller than that of SP-2. To directly
compare moment transfer efficiency of SP-3 with SP-2,
moment versus curvature relationship and strain value
was plotted in Fig. 16. Fig. 16 indicated that, at the
same curvature level, SP-2 and SP-3 specimens had dif-
ferent flexural strength at the critical region, section A.
For example, at the curvature of 48 (106/mm), the
 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005 2003

Fig. 13. Moment versus curvature relationships.

strength of the beam for SP-1 already reached 2530

KN.m, while, for SP-2, the strength of the beam was
only 2154 KN.m. As shown in Fig. 17, in the same
cumulative rotation angle, the strain on the bottom
flange of SP-3 was much smaller than that of SP-2 at
section A, while it was slightly larger than that of SP-1.
Also, Fig. 14 showed that in the case of SP-3, the ratio
of the curvature in section A to that in all sections was
about 59%, while, in the case of SP-2, it was a ratio of
83%. In addition, the plastic neutral axis of SP-3 was

Fig. 14. Distribution of curvature along beam length. Fig. 15. Absorbed energy in each section.
2004 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
Fig. 16. Effect of no weld access hole scheme.
located slightly lower than that of SP-2 at the same
cumulative rotation angle (Fig. 11(a)). These results
indicated that the no weld access hole scheme was
effective in transferring the web moment even in com-
posite connections, so that it developed less ductility
demand on the beam bottom flanges. But, the notch
caused by the unsatisfactory workmanship developed
and, consequently, SP-3 failed in the bottom flange
beneath the weld of the new web plate end prior to
developing a sufficient deformation capacity, suggesting
that the reliability of the workmanship was needed in
doing field constructions of retrofit schemes.
The horizontal stiffener specimen (SP-4) improved
the ductility of composite connections and showed
stable hysteretic characteristics compared to the stan-
dard composite specimen (SP-2). This specimen exhib-
ited flange local buckling and reached failure due to a
ductile crack initiated at the tip of the horizontal stiff-
ener. Therefore, SP-4 also improved the energy absorp-
tion capacity of composite beam connections when
compared to specimen SP-2. Fig.13(d) shows that for
SP-4, section A and section B of the beam near the col-
umn face stiffened by the horizontal stiffener remained
in elastic range or deformed only slightly even under
ultimate state. The force demand in the existing bottom
flange groove weld and the toe of the weld access hole
was significantly reduced to a reasonable level,
although the plastic neutral axis of this specimen
moved forward to the top flange but differed from that
of specimen SP-2, as shown in Fig. 11(a). Fig. 14(a)
shows the distributions of curvature in the beam’s
longitudinal direction at completion of the peak
moment. This plot showed that for SP-4, the curvature
was small near the connections and increased from the
horizontal stiffener end. In addition, in Fig. 14(b), the
ratio of the curvatures in sections A, B, C, and D to
that in all sections was 7, 8, 50 and 35%, respectively.
Similar results can also be seen through the absorbed
energy of each section. As shown in Fig. 15, the energy
of SP-2 concentrated in section A of 80% compared
with all sections. But, SP-4 absorbed energy in section
C and section D of 50% compared with all sections.
These results may illustrate that moment connections
retrofitted using the horizontal stiffener moved the
Fig. 17. Strain distribution.
plastic hinge away from the column face and, thus,
achieved a more reliable connection performance even
in composite connections.
Although the cover plate specimen (SP-5) provides a
strengthened zone in the vicinity of the connection that
results in a lower level of stress/strain on the weld as
shown in Figs.13(e), 14 and 17, the proposed connec-
tion scheme exhibited poor performance. As mentioned
in the tests results, good workmanship and sound weld-
ing quality are still required in order to provide a
reliable welded connection.
6. Conclusion
The presence of the concrete slabs had an influence
on the neutral axis location, the web moment transfer,
and the plastic zone of the connection, and these influ-
ences caused the strain on the bottom flange to be
much larger than that of the top flange. Consequently,
the deformation capacity of a composite connection is
about half that of a bare steel connection. These results
indicated that the detrimental slab effects should be
considered in the seismic design of the connection.
The no weld access hole detail (SP-3) was effective in
the transferring of the web moment even in composite
connections, such that it developed less ductility
demand on the beam bottom flanges. The cover plate
specimen (SP-5) provided a strengthened zone in the
vicinity of the connection that can be expected to result
in a lower level of stress/strain on the weld. Neverthe-
less, these proposed connections exhibited poor perform-
ance, suggesting that reliability of the workmanship and
welding quality were required to ensure the ductile per-
formance of the connection.
The horizontal stiffener details (SP-4) showed that an
enlarged plastic zone can be achieved and the defor-
mation capacity can be improved. This retrofit scheme
demonstrated very good potential in improving the duc-
tility of composite beam connections in existing build-
ings without removing the floor slabs. Moreover, by
using the horizontal stiffener in retrofit of the existing
building, workmanship as well as excellent performance
 Y.-J. Kim et al. / Engineering Structures 26 (2004) 1993–2005
can be expected at the same time. This is because by
using the horizontal stiffener retrofit scheme, downward
welding is possible and the design scheme is very simple.
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of
STRESS and POSCO, for financially supporting this
research.
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