The Effect of Plastic Hinge Location on the Flexural Strength Demand of Welded Flange Plate Connections

A Welded Flange Plate (WFP) connection consists of top and bottom flange plates that are fillet welded to the flanges of a beam and are complete joint penetration groove welded to a column flange. Four WFP design examples including various beam sizes, beam lengths, and/or assumed plastic hinge locations are presented in this paper. In these design examples, the relationships among the following three factors are in-vestigated: the assumed location of the plastic hinge, the probable peak flexural demand at the end of the beam, and the required length of the flange plates for the WFP connections. Nonlinear static finite element analyses considering both the material and geometric nonlinearities are also carried out for these examples to verify the actual location of the plastic hinge as well as the relationship between the actual location of the plastic hinge and the length of the flange plates used for the WFP connections.