Assessment of aluminum screen enclosure connections subjected to strong winds

Aluminum screen enclosures suffered severe losses in past hurricanes. The purpose of the research is to quantify the performance of various types of beam-to-host connections, which are critical in preventing catastrophic failure of the structure. Experimental testing of twenty types of connections identified attributes of strong connections such as the use of thick angles or a properly installed screen attachment between the angle and the gutter bracket. Stronger connections resisted more than twice the load compared to the weaker connections. In order to analyze the effect of using the stronger connections in a full-scale structure, fragility curves were constructed using the experimental results, and then the demand variable was converted to the wind speed by conducting structural analysis of a model structure. Failure probability analysis of the model structure quantified the benefit of using stronger connections on the aluminum screen enclosures.