Dynamic analysis of steel frames with semi-rigid connections

In the steel structures design, beam-to-column connections are usually considered either rigid or pinned, while their actual behavior lies between these two ideal cases. This consideration has a major influence on the results of the local and the global behavior of steel structures. This influence is noticed in the case of a static analysis, and has an important effect in the case of a dynamic analysis. In fact, pinned and rigid nodes can be considered as two specific cases of a semi-rigid behavior. To study the efficiency of the classification adopted in Eurocode 3, a numerical simulation of semi-rigid nodes has been carried out using the software ANSYS. In the aim to validate this simulation, the numerical results are compared to those of an analytical approach. After that, the validated numerical simulation has been used, to evaluate the efficiency of the classification adopted by the Eurocode 3, regarding semi-rigid connections. Finally, a new method is proposed to define a more accurate evaluation about semi-rigid connections.