Resistance and elastic stiffness of RHS "T" joints: part I - axial brace loading.

This paper presents a study on the behaviour of welded "T" joints between RHS sections under brace axial loading. A finite element model was developed to investigate the influence of some geometrical variables on the joint's response. The brace load (always in tension) was incremented up to joint failure, while the chord was kept unloaded. In the companion paper (part II) a complementary study including chord axial loading is presented. The force-displacement curves corresponding to the different geometries are analyzed and compared, focusing on the failure loads and elastic stiffness. Different failure criteria are discussed and applied to the present curves and a comparison of the numerical results with the Eurocode 3 provisions is presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]