Flexural Behavior of BoltSpliced Steel Beams

Abstract:

Experiments on the bending bahavior of Hsteel beams with a bolted splice were conducted, in which the influnce of the number of bolts in the splice plate on the connection behavior was considered. The failure mode, bending strength, and rigidity of the bolted splice were investigted. It was found that the initial slip of the bolts had an obviously adverse effect on both loadbearing capacity and rigidity at the subsequent stage. The strain distribution at the cross section of the bolted splice did not accord with the planesection assumption. The force in flange splice plate and the deflection of the beam were larger than those in the Hsteel beam without a bolted splice. The flange splice plate yielded earlier than the flange of Hsteel beam, but the experimental value of ultimate bending moment of the bolted splice came up to the calculation value of fullsection yield bending moment of the Hsteel beam. The bolted splice could not be simlply regarded as a rigid joint after the initial slip of bolts took place. The method and formula for calculatong the deflection of boltspliced Hsteel beams, dealing with the influence of rotational rigidity of a bolt splice, were proposed and validated by the experimental data.

Key words:H-steel beams; bolted splices; bending tests; loadbearing capacity; rigidity