Abstract:Based on the conventional high strength bolt connection, a new occlusive high strength bolt shear connection was developed. Shear bearing capacity experiment of 4 conventional high strength bolt connections and 14 occlusive high strength bolt connections was conducted. The experimental process and the collapse phenomena were introduced and described in detail. It is found that the failure mode of occlusive high strength bolt connection is mainly the dislocation of plates. Grooving on plates could effectively increase the loadbearing capacity of the connection. Moreover, the capacity of the connection increases as the bolt pretension and the depth of grooves increase. A finite element model (FEM) was established, and the failure mode and the loaddeformation curves of the connection was simulated. It is indicated that the FEM is effective because of good agreements between the results of the experiment and that of numerical model. Thus, it is believed that the established FEM could be used to execute the subsequent numerical analyses.