Reliability of HSS Cross Connections in Branch Axial Compression

A method was recently proposed, by Wei and Packer (2021), for application of the 2016 AISC Specification to rectangular HSS sidewall instability. The proposal was based on evidence from prior research and collated data from international experiments. Herein, this topic is further updated with very recent research, and suggested improvements by others. An expanded database containing both experimental and numerical (finite element) tests of rectangular HSS-to-HSS cross connections with chord sidewall failure is hence amassed, totaling 227 tests. An analysis of this data reinforces the recent recommendations.A review is given of methods in use for determining the structural reliability of steel members and connections. Based on this, a reliability study is performed on the recent recommendations, using various closed-form reliability methods as well as Monte Carlo simulation, to determine appropriate resistance factors for use with nominal-strength design equations for HSS sidewall instability. The influence of many variables, in particular chord sidewall slenderness, live-to-dead load ratio, as well as material and geometric properties, on the structural reliability of full-width rectangular HSS-to-HSS cross-connections under branch axial compression is studied.