Proceedings home preface contents authors keywords copyright reference ©2012 Civil-Comp Ltd				Paper 36 Introducing an Innovative Column Splicing Technique for Steel Structures M. Foroughi1 and M.A. Barkhordari2 1Department of Civil Engineering, Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran 2Civil Engineering Department, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran Keywords: splice, path, steel structure, drawer path, connection, welded connection, sliding splice. full paper (pdf) - reference In construction of steel structures, in many cases because of the shortage in profile length, a change in column section in height, or other conditions it becomes necessary. In spite of all the provisions, the column patch is one of the weakness points of the structure [1]. Foroughi proposed a type of splicing design called a sliding patch which is more suitable for I sections especially I section columns [2]. The proposed patch, is of greater quality and of lower cost and it is not more difficult to construct compared with conventional methods. The procedure is as follows; first, the web of the lower portion of the column is cut to the proper size and removed then, the upper part of the column that is usually of a smaller size is placed inside the flanges of the lower portion and the two parts are welded properly. Consequently, the flanges of the lower part play the role of patching the plate and because of continuity, the required length of the patching plate will be decreased to half and needs less welding and cutting. Recently, Foroughi and colleagues [3] studied this type of splicing under cyclic loading. In these studies, the patch was modelled using finite elements considering material and geometrical nonlinearities. The program ANSYS is employed and the model was analysed under cyclic loading. The contact regions were modelled using contact elements. All samples are modelled in both the conventional form and the proposed form. A comparison of the results shows that the proposed method of construction demonstrates better behaviour than conventional methods. In addition the proposed method requires less cutting and welding. In this paper, sliding splicing for columns with different size sections with web plates and stiffeners are studied using the finite element method. The behaviour of such patches under cyclic loading is presented. The results are compared with those of traditional splicing. The comparison leads to the following conclusions: Sliding splices show better behaviour compared to traditional ones. Applying stiffener plates instead of web plates will improve the behaviour of the traditional and especially sliding splices. Maximum stresses and strains occur in the support region. In all samples, plastic deformations occur only in the support region and there is no plastic deformation in the connection region. Sliding splices in both cases require less welding and cutting compared to traditional connections. The findings of this research clearly demonstrate the advantages of this method of splicing and patches compared to conventional methods. References 1 M. Wakabayashi, "Design of earthquake-resistant buildings", 1921. 2 M. Foroughi, "Introducing an innovative kind of column and beam splicing in steel structures named Sliding Path", Yazd University, Iran, 1994. 3 F. Dehqani Ashkezari, "Investigation on behaviour of Sliding Splice under cyclic loadings", MSc thesis, Yazd University, Iran, 2011.