Reliability Analysis of Block Shear Capacity of Coped Steel Beams

Abstract

Equations in design standards for determining the block shear capacity of coped steel beams vary significantly. In many cases, they predict capacities considerably higher than those determined experimentally. Moreover, relatively few block shear tests on coped steel beams have been conducted. A reliability analysis was completed based on the results of 36 tests on coped wide-flange beams, including 17 new full-scale tests, in order to determine the level of safety being provided by current design standards in North America, with equations from European and Japanese design standards being considered as alternatives. It was found that these standards do not consistently provide an acceptable level of safety and that the strength of two-line connections is often overpredicted by a considerable margin. To address these shortcomings, a simple new equation is proposed for design that provides both an adequate and consistent level of safety and provides good results over a broad array of connection configurations. It also reflects the failure mode that has been observed consistently in tests.