Moment rotation behaviour of eccentric base plate connections in storage racks

सार

The base plate connection in a cold-formed steel storage rack consists of an eccentrically welded bracket, and the upright is bolted to the bracket to form the connection. The moment rotation behaviour of such connections depends on the anchor bolt positions in the base plate connections. This paper presents a finite element study on the momentrotation behaviour of base plate connections used in storage rack systems. The study focuses on the effect of the perforations in the upright and the anchor bolt positions in the base plate connection on the moment capacity and the initial tangent stiffness of the connection. Finite element models are developed using ABAQUS software and the validated with experimental results from published literature. The results show that while the moment capacity remains relatively consistent across different bolt positions, the initial tangent stiffness and the failure mode vary significantly. Detailed analyses of moment-rotation behaviour have been conducted to identify the critical points in connection failure modes. It is observed that the behaviour of connections is influenced by yielding in different components such as the upright, bracket, and base plate. The study identifies preferred configurations with desirable failure modes and provides insights into optimizing base plate connections for storage rack systems.