You will have to be much more specific about the type of connection you are asking about. Firstly, what is the material? And then, what type moment connection are you considering?
If you are designing in steel, you need to establish the moment that is to be transferred from one member to the next. To achieve this continuity, the moment needs to pass through a connection.
The connection design can include a number of aspects, such as plate bending, analysis of bolt groups, resolving weld shears etc.
Importantly, make sure you never violate equilibrium.
If you are more descriptive about your connection, we will be able to help more.
The client (a welder) built a patio. Here is the connection he built for the post to footing connection. I need to evaluate lateral loads and determine how much moment and shear it can handle.
What whyun said... If you have a sketch like this and still cannot do the design, you should definately NOT be trying to get help here. Your phone book under "Engineers, Structural" is the right place.
This connection requires a good understanding of timber, steel and at least a reasonable understanding of concrete design. You can't pick up enough here without someone doing this for you, which is NOT what Eng-Tips is meant to be...
Regards,
YS
B.Eng (Carleton)
Working in New Zealand, thinking of my snow covered home...
Moment capability about the axis parallel to the 16" plate direction will be less than the moment capability about the axis in the 6" plate direction. What is the strength of the concrete and how deep is the embedment of the #4 rebar? also what is steel strength, timber strength and bolt strength? How are the plates connected?
The concrete strength is irrelevant, the connection will not work for a moment of any significance.
ridgeline,
As others have noted, this is clearly outside your region of expertise. I would recommend you consuly someone who knows what they are doing, particularly if you are in a seismic zone.
The connection has negligible moment capacity which can not be relied upon. Suggest to design a kiker (diagonal brace) to tie the post and the patio edge beams to provide lateral stability.
Though "encasing" the base of the post adequate distance up the bottom of the post does provide some fixity, but if I were to design this as a moment connection, I would design the shear capacity of the bolts in wood to resist the moment as a couple, each direction separately, neglecting the steel plate encasement. This would be conservative.
Increase the spacing between the bolts to achieve greater capacity.
Provide all steel, weld, anchor connections to achieve greater capacities than the bolt in shear.
The biggest problem with trying to design a moment connection like this in timber is that timber shrinks a lot perpendicular to grain. So you may have it tight in the beginning, but as it shrinks, you lose what you tried to achieve. Back to the drawing board.
