RAM Connection V13 - W-Flange Beam to HSS Column - BCF

3. If you want the beam to be framng into the wide face of the Rectangular tube use a Beam to Column Web configuration. 

2. I'm not sure what type of connection you are talking about in point 2, a through plate? 

3. Eventually. Truss connections are there now, and mitred tube to tube connections. 

Thank you so much, and sorry for being vague, this type of connection:

I would have to dig through the AISC documents to confirm where this is indicated, but the logic is that the face wall of the HSS might be thin and could bend, so it's better to design the welds parallel to the force on the side walls to take the full tension/compression.  I've had at least one other request to include the face weld (Re: Work Item 567070: Flange Plate Moment Connection to HSS Column Face). There is also a need to fully design a two-sided connection of this type where the unbalanced moments (only) are taken into account. 

Yeah, even somewhat thick tube walls still tend to be pretty flexible and shed load toward the stiffer corners, but a flange plate to tube wall connection would be nice for those common small-moment connections (10-30 k-ft, maybe 50k-ft at a thick and narrow face). STI's HSS Design Manual (Volume 3) recognizes direct flange weld to face of column (a similar joint) for low-moment conditions because of the simplicity, but warns that they should be selected with caution because the column wall flexibility can be enough to negate the assumption of negligible angle change required for a rigid moment connection. When I've modeled those in my FEA-based connection software, they generally came out as semi-rigid (i.e. a partially-restrained moment connection), so I'd say that caution is warranted.

As far as sizing welds on the wraparound plates, you could count the face weld with an "effective weld length" factor like AISC did for HSS truss connections.

Yeah, even somewhat thick tube walls still tend to be pretty flexible and shed load toward the stiffer corners, but a flange plate to tube wall connection would be nice for those common small-moment connections (10-30 k-ft, maybe 50k-ft at a thick and narrow face). STI's HSS Design Manual (Volume 3) recognizes direct flange weld to face of column (a similar joint) for low-moment conditions because of the simplicity, but warns that they should be selected with caution because the column wall flexibility can be enough to negate the assumption of negligible angle change required for a rigid moment connection. When I've modeled those in my FEA-based connection software, they generally came out as semi-rigid (i.e. a partially-restrained moment connection), so I'd say that caution is warranted.

As far as sizing welds on the wraparound plates, you could count the face weld with an "effective weld length" factor like AISC did for HSS truss connections.