Shear Performance of Steel Thin Sheet-to-Thick Plate Bolted Connections

This paper presents a study on the bolted connections of cold-formed steel (CFS) sheets and hot-rolled steel (HRS) plates. The test strengths and failure modes were compared with the results predicted by the North American Specification (AISI S 100–16) and European Standard (EN1993-1–3) for CFS structures. Additionally, the influence of the fastener diameter and the thickness of the CFS sheets and HRS plates on the specimens were discussed. In addition, numerical modeling of the specimens was established to simulate the failure modes and load-deformation relationships. Finally, a modified equation for bearing strength is proposed, discussed, and verified by reliability analysis. The results showed that bearing failure, shear failure and net section failure were observed. The nominal strengths predicted by AISI S 100 and EN 1993–1-3 are generally conservative. The numerical models can predict the failure modes and load-deformation relationships of the specimens with good agreement. In addition, the proposed method for the bearing strength of the connections has better accuracy than the current specifications.