System-level approach to predict the transient fire response of double angle connections

This paper presents a system-level approach to simulate the transient response of double angle connection under realistic fire and loading conditions. The numerical model, developed using commercially available finite element software ANSYS, accounts for material and geometrical nonlinearities, degradation of constitutive material properties with temperature and non-linear contact interactions. The model is validated by comparing predictions from the analysis with the published experimental results. The validated model is applied to study the effect of system-level interactions, load level, non-standard fire scenarios and high-temperature properties of bolts on the fire performance of double angle connections. Results from the parametric studies indicate that type of fire scenario, system-level interactions and high-temperature bolt properties have significant influence on the transient fire performance of connection assembly. However, the type of bolts (grade) does not have much influence on the fire performance of double angle connections.