Static Strength of Tubular T-joint with Reinforced Chord Under In-plane Bending Load

Abstract

Recent research on the static strength of axially loaded tubular T-joints with chord reinforcement shows that appropriately proportioned reinforced length and thickness can significantly improve the static strength. This paper extends the numerical study to chord reinforced tubular T-joint subjected to in-plane bending load. Firstly, various aspects of the FEA strategy such as material properties, element type, mesh density, and load condition are addressed. Afterwards, 4 T-joint models are analyzed to prove that increasing the thickness of the chord is effective to increase the static strength. Finally, the parametric investigation, which involves the length and the thickness of the reinforced chord segment, is conducted. From the parametric study, the most effective values of the length and the thickness of the reinforced chord are suggested.