Special Truss Moment Frame Component Test 12 - 2C6x13

Specimen 12, similarly to Specimen 11, was made of double channels, 2C6x13 and tested under cyclic loading. The test setup represents the intermediate vertical members in the special segment of a prototype STMF. The specimen was welded to a gusset plate and the 2C12x20.7 column that resembles the chord members of the STMF. The weld length between the gusset plate and the specimen was 6 in. while the weld free length was 4 in. Severe bulging of the webs was not observed in experiment 11, as a result, the stiffeners were not used in this experiment.
The specimen exhibited elastic behavior up to 0.5% story drift and started to lose its strength at the second cycle of +2% story drift while the negative cycles were maintained at -1.5% story drift due to the capacity limit of the hydraulic actuator. When comparing the hysteretic behavior of Specimens 11 and 12, it can be seen that they behaved nearly identically except that Specimen 12 was able to reach 1 cycle of +2% story drift or 10% member drift without losing its strength. Bulging of the webs of the specimen, even without stiffeners, was not severe compared to 2C12x20.7 because h/t ratio of C6x13 is smaller.