Ductility and Strength of High‐strength Bolted Connections for High‐strength Constructional Steels

Abstract

This paper conducts an investigation on ductility and strength of high strength bolted connections for high strength constructional steels. Ductility and strength of different bolted connection types are comprehensively studied and compared. It is found that reduction in material elongation capacity for high strength steels has negligible effect on the ductility of bolted connections. When the net cross‐section failure is prevented, similar ductility is found for the bearing‐type bolted connection with different number of bolts. In addition, the misalignment of bolt hole will not introduce negative effect on ductility and strength of the connection. The load‐displacement curve for the connection with misaligned bolt hole will coincide with the connection without misaligned bolt hole. It is concluded that similar ductility of bearing‐type connection is maintained with increasing steel grade while strength of multi‐bolt connection in high strength steel can still be calculated by summation of each individual bolt.