Directly Reusable Steel Column Base Connection ‐ Concept and Numerical investigation

Construction industry as a whole should transform into designs that enable demountability and direct reuse of structural elements to achieve the circularity in construction. Currently, structural connections enabling direct reuse of components in construction are limited. Column base connections are one of the main load transfer units of a steel structure for the magnitude of the forces being transferred from the superstructure. This paper presents an interlocking type of column base connection that enables direct reuse of all associated structural components. The proposed interlocking connection transfers the force through the plate bearing and holding mechanisms and requires minimal number of bolts. In addition to the direct reuse and better load transfer approach, the new interlocking connection enhances and simplifies the mounting procedure that leads to increased productivity in construction. This article discusses the overall concept of the proposed interlocking connection, design philosophy and compares the failure modes with existing conventional bolted column base connections for various loading cases through finite element analyses. Main parameters investigated are the effects of bearing length of connector element and connector element thickness under uniaxial loading. A finite element model of the proposed interlocking connection is built through which the influential parameters are analysed.