Experimental and numerical analysis of E-stubs in three dimensional joints: A new analytical formulation for the stiffness calculation

This paper focuses on the stiffness of the E-stub component that appears in three dimensional joints with additional plates welded to the column flanges. This component is not covered by the formulation of Eurocode 3. So in this work a new formulation for the calculation of the E-stub stiffness is presented. Numerical models have been calibrated on the basis of the results of six experimental tests with different geometries where column size and bolts distances have been taken into account. The comparison with the experimental results shows that the proposal finite elements models are able to accurately reproduce the behaviour of the E-stub. A parametric study is also undertaken and a new formulation for the calculation of the E-stub stiffness is proposed.