The use of circular steel base plates having circular anchor bolts
pattern is common in communication and traffic applications
among many others. The lack of simple and accurate models for
designing such connection plates, except for scattered trials,
initiated the importance of further studying their behaviour.
This paper presents a study for such connecting plates
considering different parameters that have been analyzed using
the Finite Element (FE) package ADINA. The finite element
results were first verified through the use of experimental data
available in the published literature. A parametric investigation
was then carried out to numerically expand the experimental
data in order to gain more insight into the behaviour of the base
plates. The parameters changed in the numerical investigation
included: base plate thickness; number of anchor bolts; bolt
circle diameter; plate diameter; weld detail and stiffener
presence. A simple design model based on yield line theory is
then introduced and a comparison between yield moment
predicted using it and ADINA results is presented. |
