Mechanism Of Block Shear Failure Of Bolted Connections

This paper studies on mechanisms for block shear failure in the design provisions such as in
the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-formed Steel Structural Members
2007 and AS/NZS 4600:2005 Coldformed Steel Structures. It shows that there is only one
applicable mechanism for the limit state of conventional block shear failure that includes
shear yielding and tensile rupture. It suggest an equation that more accurate than other code
equations that is used for calculate block shear capacities of bolted connections in steels
having minimal strain hardening. A resistance factor of 0.8 for the recommended equation is
computed according to the Load and Resistance Factor Design approach given in the North
American cold-formed steel specifications.

The steel materials used in the tests had low strain hardening.

Current code equations for block shear failure:

In Clause E5.3 of the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-formed Steel
Structural Members 2007 (AISI 2010). In equation 1 block shear failure by shear yielding and
tensile rupture. In equation 2 block shear failure by shear and tensile rupture at the same time.

In Clause 5.6.3 of AS/NZS 4600:2005 Cold-formed Steel Structures (SA/SNZ 2005). In

option a, if tensile rupture is bigger than shear rupture equation 1 is used. In option b, if shear
rupture is bigger than tensile rupture block shear failure occur by shear rupture and tensile
yielding.
In figure 2, there is a flat member that connected at the end is subjected to a concentric load
and is restricted from out of plane failure modes. Excluding the net sectin failure mode and
the bearing failure mode, there are two possible failure modes for the connected end. If e n is
relatively short , it will fail by shear out of each bolt. The second failure mode is block shear
failure mode by shear and tensile ruptures at the same time.

According to the North American Specifications the shear out capacity is:

To occur block shear failure by simultaneous shear and tensile rupture, aspect raito must be
increased by increasing en , decreasing bolt spacing or both. The aspect ratio at which the
hypothetical mechanism of simultaneous shear and tensile ruptures could occur is termed the
threshold ratio in the present work.

In reality, this type of block shear mechanism in Equation 2 is not feasible. Actually, the
tensile strain in net section increase much more rapidly than the shear strains so that the block
shear mechanism become shear yielding and tensile rupture.

When the aspect ratio slightly lower than threshold ratio,a block shear failure by shear
yielding and tensile rupture is still possible as shown in Fig.4, where the shear out
deformations were exceeded by the shear yielding and tensile rupture mechanism.

When the aspect ratio increases beyond the threshold ratio, block shear failure can only be
due to shear yielding and tensile rupture since the tensile strains are always more critical than
the shear strain.
When the aspect ratio sufficiently lower than threshold ratio, the shear-out failure mode
governs. The block shear capacity of a bolted connection is defined as the maximum load
preceding the tensile rupture

For determining the block shear capacity. There is two offsetting factors:

1.Shear strain hardening may occur before a block shear failure , so use of the yield stress in
the equation for calculate shear yield resistance gives less contribution and underestimated
results.

2. Using gross area in equation gives a overestimated results

These two factors may offset each other and gives an acceptable results in Equation 1
compared to others. As seen in the study of (Clement & Teh 2012), using active shear planes
gives more appropriate results.

If the effect of in-plane shear lag on the tension capacity of a net section is considered , the
block shear failure strength of a bolted connection is computed as:
Where d is bolt diameter and p2 is bolt spacing in the tensile resistance plane

Test materials

The values in below are obtained from six 12.5 mm wide tension coupons. Tensile loadings of
all coupons and bolted connection specimens are in the direction transverse to the rolling
direction of the G450 sheet steel.The tension coupon tests were conducted at a constant stroke
rate of 1 mm/minute resulting in a strain rate of about 2 x 10-4 per second prior to necking.

Two connection series were tested to investigate the accuracy of the code and proposed
equations. Series A have a single row of two bolts that diameters are 12 mm, Series B have
two row bolts that diameters are 16 mm. The bolts were only installed by hand with minimal
tightening, and no washers were used in all the tests.
Results

Table 2 shows the ratios of the ultimate test load Pt to the block shear failure strength Rn
predicted by Equations (1), (2), (3) and (5). Equations (2) and (3) do not represent the true
mechanism of block shear failure as explained in previous sections.

It can be seen from Table 2 that Equation 1 invariably overestimates the block shear
capacities of Series A specimens. It’s block shear failure mechanism is shear yielding and
tensile rupture.

It can be seen that in Equation 3 block shear failure mechanism is shear rupture and tensile
yielding, it overestimates the block shear capacity of some specimens by almost 40%. In
Equation 2 block shear failure mechanism is shear rupture and tensile rupture at the same
time,it overestimates the block shear capacity by up to 10%.
The reason of overestimating block shear capacities of Series B in Equation 1 and 3, use of
gross area in evaluation of shear or tensile yielding resistance. In Equation 2, for Series B
specimens block shear capacities is underestimated even though tensile strength F u is used in
evaluation the shear resistance. It is due to use of reduced shear area A nv. It is more important
in Specimen B rather than Specimen A because when the number of bolt rows increase the
difference between the net and active shear areas increase. Equation 5 gives the greatest
accuracy for block shear capacities of Series A and B specimens.
Conclusions

Among all the diverse block shear failure mechanisms, there is only one applicable
mechanism that includes shear yielding and tensile rupture. It is used in both the North
American and the Australasian code. Due to use the gross area this equation gives excessive
capacity value.

The equation that includes shear and tensile rupture at the same time in the North American
specifications gives excessive capacity value for single row bolted connections, but less in
double row bolted ones.

The equation that includes shear rupture and tensile yielding in the Australian standard gives
excessive capacity value for all specimens tested.
The equation proposed in this paper , which is includes shear yielding and tensile rupture
mechanism and which uses active shear resistance planes and also consider in-plane shear lag
factor in computing block shear capacity gives more consistent and accurate results than all
other equations. It is recommended that a resistance factor 0.8 is used in order to ensure
reliability index of not less than 3.5 in the LFRD approach of the North American
specification for the design of cold-formed steel structures.