EQUALJOINTS +

Within the previous RFCS project EQUALJOINTS (RFSR-CT-2013-00021), seismic prequalification criteria of steel joints have been developed. The EQUALJOINTS+ project  aims at the valorisation, the dissemination and the extension of the developed prequalification criteria for practical applications to a wide audience (i.e. academic institutions, Engineers and architects, construction companies, steel producers). The main objectives of the project are the following:

• To collect and organize informative material concerning the prequalified joint typologies: informative documents will be prepared in 12 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, and Slovenian).

• To develop pre-normative design recommendations of seismically qualified joints on the basis of results from Equaljoints project.

• To develop design guidelines in order to design steel structures accounting for the type of joints and their relevant nonlinear response.

• To develop a software and an app for mobile to predict the inelastic response of joints.

• To organize seminars (2) and workshops (14) for disseminating the gained knowledge over EU and internationally. Workshops and seminars will be organized in the own-countries of partners involved in the project as well as in United States of America (USA). With this regard, since in EQUALJOINTS dog-bone joints with heavy sections have been qualified using US shapes produced in Europe, the organization of seminars in USA will be an important opportunity to get to the US Market, consolidating the gain of European economy and having beneficial impact on exportation of European products in USA.

• To create a web site with free access to the users in order to promote the obtained results.

• To create a You-Tube channel to make available the videos of the experimental tests and simulations to show the evolution of damage pattern.

Academics in charge: Jean-François Demonceau et Jean-Pierre Jaspart