Rotation Stiffness Investigation of Spatial Joints with End-Plate Connection

Abstract

Spatialjointswithend-plateconnectionsshowsignificantspatialcouplingeffectsunderspatialloading.Mechanicalbehaviourand failuremodesofthesespatialjointsdifferfromthoseofplanarjoints.Thisstudyinvolvedexperimentsandfiniteelementanalyses withrespecttoplanarjointswithend-plateconnectionsunderstaticload.Thenumericalresultsagreedwellwiththeexperimental data,andthisverifiedtheadequacyofthefiniteelementanalyses.Then,finiteelementmodelsofthespatialinteriorjoint,exterior joint, and corner joint were established to analyse the difference between the mechanical behaviour of spatial joints and planar joints. The component method was used to analyse components contributing to the initial stiffness of spatial joints. An initial rotationstiffnesscalculationmodelofspatialjointswasproposedbasedonthedeformationofjoints.Thefindingsindicatedthat results of the calculation models were in good agreement with those of the finite element analyses, and this proved that the calculation model proposed in this study could act as a reference method.