After the Northridge and Kobe earthquake, the focus on bolted beam-column connections are amplified, since the performance of bolted connections are better than field welded connections under seismic loading. Bolted T-stub connection is one of the alternative popular moment resisting connection in steel structures and moment rotational characteristics of such joints are very important to obtain realistic behavior of frames. EC3 suggest component approach to obtain moment rotational characteristics for end-plate and top-seat angle connections based on equivalent T-stub approach. In this approach, moment rotational characteristics of joints are obtained by assembling the individual stiffness of each elements of the connection. EC3 suggest that the major connection components, which affect the behavior of beam-column connections. One such component is bolted stem plate in T-stub connection. No model is available in EC3 to obtain the initial stiffness of stem plate. In this study, finite element analysis (FEA) has been conducted on stem plate subjected tension. This model is validated by using experimental results available in literature. From the study, the parameters that affect the stiffness and strength of stem plate are arrived.

Keywords: Beam-column connection, Finite element analysis, Component approach, Rotational stiffness.