Reliability of Structural Steel Haunch Connections for Prestressed Concrete

Abstract

This paper discusses a procedure to calculate current levels of reliability of prestressed concrete connections. The procedure is then utilized to determine the reliability of structural steel haunch connections used in prestressed concrete. The analyses accounted for the variability in loading and the variability in the parameters that comprise the connection strength. A variable model error factor was also developed from previous experimental work and included in the analyses. The analyses accounted for the three failure modes of concrete shear, steel shear, and steel flexure. The results presented in this paper show the reliability index for these types of connections to be relatively low in comparison to levels of reliability found in the majority of design standards in use today. An additional load factor, as suggested in the prestressed concrete industry's design standard, was also incorporated in the analyses. This improved the reliability of the connections, but not to levels that may be expected.