This study deals with the "connecting zone" of a thin walled steel column at which two beams for the alternate directions are connected with the different height. A corner zone of a rigid frame structure at which beams are connected is generally subjected to the bending and shear. When two beams are connected to the column with different height, i.e. the beams have a "shift" in their axis, the connected zone is more complicated. In this study, a series of numerical analysis is made on the strength and behaviour of such a structure. Elasto-plastic large deflection FEM is used with the are-length increment technique, and plate thickness, the magnitude of the "shift" and so on are adopted as parameters. Through the analysis, it is found that the behaviour of a connecting zone of a column with shifted beams has almost completely different from one with no shift, and that the smaller shift reduces the ultimate strength. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
