Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Behavior of Beam–Column Connections with Reinforced Side Plates

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

There is specific choice of literature references which are mostly local names, quality of the paper should improve with sources from around the world.

Figure 4 shows cyclic loading but no time scale is presented or even mentioned. Justification of the type of loading should be more extensive and relation to real conditions given.

Also authors should address level of load if this was to destroy the sample or reflect some real conditions.

I could not find anything about the joints modelling as nature of them is different than standard material of the design elsewhere.

Also cyclic loading in software solution should be better described, at least with relation to the experiment.

Some remark should be done on capabilities of ABAQUS software to reflect dynamic behavior.

Please note there are sentences not finishing with full dot what makes reading difficult.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is focused on experimental/numerical activities on beam-column steel connection. In particular the response of side plate joints is investigated under cyclic loads. In this form it appears a test report more than a scientific paper. The topic is not innovative because this kind of tests were perfomed since 30 years ago (see for example paper doi 10.1111/j.1460-2695.1997.tb00318.x).  Similar results are already known in literature.

The most interesting part is the numerical model but a great number of information are missing, like : -how the bolts were modeled?; how the weldings were considered? what about the post-failure behaviour of the steel (i.e. damage rule for steel in Abaqus) ? how the mesh was calibrated ?

Finally in the conclusion no pratical indication for engineers are reported. What are the practical conclusion by using this kind of connections ? how the knowledge of the damage index can be useful for the design ? 

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The article contains many unnecessary detailed descriptions of the preparation and conduct of the experiment. But there is no qualitative analysis of experimental data in numerical terms of the research results, the authors of the article mainly give a qualitative assessment of the results obtained. When testing welded joints, an important role is played by the material of the part (base material) and the material of the welding electrode (auxiliary material), as well as the welding method and selected welding modes. Incorrect selection of the specified components of the welding process can lead to the destruction of the welded joint within 24 hours after welding.
The article states on line 67 "This paper uses the Q345B carbon steel profile as the selected steel...", but there is no information on the chemical composition of the selected steel. Further in the article there is a comparison of different mechanical properties of the welded structure, but there is also no information on the initial values ​​of the mechanical properties of the steel beam.
The model is also built incorrectly, because there is no information in what state the welded structure was tested - in the state after welding with accumulated welding internal stresses or was post-weld volumetric heat treatment performed?
The format of the article is also average. The figure and caption (247) and the title of the section (276) and its text are located on different pages. Figure 17 is indicated, followed by Figure 13 (296).

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Paper is improved respect the previous version. I suggest to increase a llittele the explantion in the abaqus model part

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

Notes have not been fully corrected. 

Author Response

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