Block shear behaviour and design of bolted stainless steel angle connections
Youtian Wang,Yuchen Song,Yifan Zhou,Qun He,Yicen Liu
Abstract
Stainless steel angle sections are widely used in building structures due to their structural simplicity,
efficiency in carrying axial forces, and excellent corrosion resistance. This study presents a comprehensive numerical
study on the block shear behaviour and design of bolted stainless steel angle connections. An advanced FE
simulation framework incorporating full-range constitutive model, fracture criterion, and material anisotropy was
developed and validated against existing experimental results. Parametric analyses were then conducted considering
different combinations of stainless steel grades (austenitic S304 and duplex S2205), bolt hole diameter, end and edge
distances, bolt gauge and pitch distances, plate thickness, and the number of bolt lines and rows. The results showed
that increasing the number of bolt rows, end distance, and pitch distance enhanced the ultimate tensile resistance by
enlarging the effective shear area, while more bolt lines, larger gauge and edge distances improved the resistance
through the increase of effective tensile area. In contrast, the outstanding leg width, bolt hole diameter and plate
thickness had a limited influence on the normalised ultimate resistance. A consistent block shear failure mechanism
was observed for all connections. Austenitic stainless steel specimens exhibited two failure modes, including tensile
necking with shear cracking and tensile necking with shear yielding, whereas duplex stainless steel specimens
showed only the tensile necking with shear yielding mode. Comparisons with existing international design standards
revealed notable discrepancies. Therefore, a modified design approach was proposed to improve the accuracy of
block shear resistance predictions for bolted stainless angle connections.
Youtian Wang — 1)Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China 2)Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Yuchen Song — Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
Yifan Zhou — School of Civil Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Qun He — Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Yicen Liu — Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
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