The Influence of Gravity Loads on the Seismic Design of RBS Connections

Connections with Reduced Beam Section (RBS) have been investigated in the last 20 years both from an analytical point of view and from an experimental point of view. Several experimental tests demonstrated that RBS connections designed according to themost modern seismic codes are able to obtain the desired goal: the protection of the connection due to the yielding of the adjacent RBS. But in all the past researches and experimental tests the role that vertical loads can play was neglected or not properly accounted for. This study proposes a new procedure for accurately computing the relation between RBS location, vertical load and amount of section reduction for ensuring that plastic hinges develop in the reduced sections or in a reduced section and in an intermediate section of the beam.