Behaviour and design of bolted endplate joints between composite walls and steel beams

This paper presents a finite element model for predicting the monotonic behaviour of bolted endplate joints connecting steel-concrete composite walls and steel beams. The demountable Hollo-bolts are utilised to facilitate the quick installation and dismantling for replacement and reuse. In the developed model, material and geometric nonlinearities were included. The accuracy of the developed model was assessed by comparing the numerical results with previous experimental tests on hollow/composite column-to-steel beam joints that incorporated endplates and Hollo-bolts. In particular, the Hollo-bolts were modelled with the expanded sleeves involved, and different material properties of the Hollo-bolt shank and sleeves were considered based on the information provided by the manufacture. The developed models, therefore, can be applied in the present study to simulate the wall-to-beam joints with similar structural components and characteristics. Based on the validated model, the authors herein compared the behaviour of wall-to-beam joints of two commonly utilised composite walling systems (Case 1: flat steel plates with headed studs; Case 2: lipped channel section with partition plates). Considering the ease of manufacturing, onsite erection and the pertinent costs, composite walling system with flat steel plates and conventional headed studs (Case 1) was the focus of present study. Specifically, additional headed studs were pre-welded inside the front wall plates to enhance the joint performance. On this basis, a series of parametric studies were conducted to assess the influences of five design parameters on the behaviour of bolted endplate wall-to-beam joints. The initial stiffness, plastic moment capacity, as well as the rotational capacity of the composite wall-to-beam joints based on the numerical analysis were further compared with the current design provision.