Slip-resistant bolted connections under freeze-thaw cycles and low temperature

There are many examples of steel structures subjected to severe environmental conditions with bolted connections directly exposed to extreme climatic agents such as freeze-thaw cycles or low temperatures. Some examples are: steel bridges, mining transfer towers, wind towers... These service conditions neither are included in Eurocode 3 or EN1090-2, nor there are references in other international standards. In this experimental research, 46 specimens of non-slip joints with HV M20 bolts and four different types of contact surfaces have been studied. Half of the specimens were subjected to fourteen twelve-hours freezethaw cycles, with periodic immersion in water and temperature oscillation. Subsequently, half of the connections were subjected to a slip test under monotonic load at temperature of -20 ± 0.5 °C and the other half at room temperature. The results were compared with others equal joints not subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and kept at room temperature for the same time. This finally resulted in 4 sets of joints by combining the freeze-thaw degradation or not with the low-temperature conditions or not in the slip testing. Therefore, a total of 16 different conditions were studied by also considering 4 different contact surfaces between the joined plates in each set. The results obtained show influence of environmental conditions on the slip resistant capacity of these joints.