TESTS ON LOAD-CARRYING BEHAVIOR OF STAINLESS STEEL BOLTED T-STUB CONNECTIONS

A total of 14 stainless steel bolted T-stubs were tested under monotonic loading. The ultimate strength, failure modes and prying forces of the test specimens were obtained. The effects of the key parameters including the flange thickness, flange material grade, bolt diameter and bolt preloading were analyzed. It was revealed that the introduction of bolt preloading had little effect on the ultimate strength and failure mode, but resulted in increased initial stiffness for the T-stub specimens. The failure mode of the T-stub connections depended on both the tensile strength of the bolt and the flexural strength of the flange. The prying forces increased gradually with reduced flange thickness and bolt diameters, while the prying forces corresponding to the ultimate strength were not influenced by the bolt preloading. The test results were further compared with the strength predicted by the existing European, American and Chinese design codes. It was found that the existing design provisions were generally conservative for stainless steel bolted T-stub connections, among which the American code provided relatively better predictions. It may be attributed to the use of material tensile strength instead of yield strength.