Mechanical Behavior of Intercalation Plate Joints of Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Wind Turbine Tower

In order to understand mechanical behavior of intercalation plate joints of concrete-filled steel tubular wind turbine tower, static test of four split-type nodes was carried out, and finite element nonlinear analysis of parameters expansion was carried out by ABAQUS. Effect force distribution of the gusset plate and equivalent stress distribution in cone were analyzed by change the thickness of the gusset plate and the height of the spherical column. The results show that failure modes include buckling failure mode, inclusion slip failure mode, and spherical column shear failure mode, which depend on the thickness of the gusset plate, the holding force of the inclusion, and the height of the spherical column. The gusset plate is the weak part of the node, which varied with the thickness of the gusset plate and the height of the spherical column, the high stress zone concentrate at the intersection between lower part of the gusset plate and the spherical column. If brace buckling failure do not occur, the spherical column at the same height, the thickness of the gusset plate is no more than 12 mm (n ≤ 12 mm), the bearing capacity of the node increases with the gusset plate thickness, when the gusset plate thickness is larger than 12 mm (n > 12 mm), with the increase of the gusset plate thickness, the increase of the node bearing capacity slows down significantly. when the gusset plate thickness is the same, the sphere cylinder height is no more than 90 mm (h ≤ 90 mm), the bearing capacity of the node obviously increases with the increase of the ball column height, when the sphere cylinder height is larger than 90 mm (h > 90 mm), the bearing capacity of the node slows down with the increase of the sphere cylinder height obviously. It suggests that the gusset plate thickness is no more than 12 mm （n ≤ 12 mm）, the ball column height is no more than 90 mm （h ≤ 90 mm） is more reasonable for such nodes in actual engineering design.