Structural Connections

Mechanics of Materials
SECOND EDITION

E. P. POPOV
Professor of Civil Engineering
University of California, Berkeley

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• The design of various members based on strength,
stiffness, and stability considerations was discussed in
the preceding topics.

• In this topic, the methods of analysis and design of

connections for these members will be treated.

• The analysis of connections cannot be made on as

rigorous a basis as used in much of the preceding work.

• The design of connections is largely empirical and is

based on available experience as well as sound
interpretation of experimental research.
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• Riveted connections played a dominant role in past
engineering construction.

• However, the increasing use of welding and high-

strength bolting due to the economic advantages
they offer has caused a rapid decline in the use of
rivets and ordinary bolts as fasteners in the
fabrication of structural products.

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• Most members are made up of plate-like parts such
as actual plates, webs and flanges of beams, legs of
angles, etc.

• The design of a riveted or bolted connection is

mainly concerned with the transfer of forces
through these plates.

• It is also possible for more than two shear planes to

occur in complex joints involving interaction
between several plate elements.

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• Ingenuity must be exercised in arranging the rivets
at a joint.

• Accessibility for riveting and proper tool clearances

are important considerations.

• Riveted joints are normally designed to transmit

shear rather than tension through the rivets.

• The design of a connection is more involved than a

check of stresses in an existing joint.

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Typical arrangements of riveted connections

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Typical arrangements of bolted connections

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Methods of failure of a riveted or bolted joint

1. Failure in tension

2. Failure in Shear

3. Failure in Bearing

4. Other methods of failure

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Failure in Tension

It is customary to base the

capacity of a Joint in tension on the
assumption of a uniform stress
distribution across the net section
of a plate.

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Failure in Shear

• In a riveted joint, the rivets themselves may fail in

shear.
• In analyzing this manner of failure, one must always
note whether a rivet acts in single or double shear.
• In the latter case, two cross-sectional areas of the
same rivet resist the applied force.
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Failure in Bearing
• A riveted joint may fail if a rivet
crushes the material of the plate
against which it bears.

• The stress distribution is very

complicated in this type of
failure and is somewhat like that
shown in Fig. c.

• This stress distribution is

approximated on the basis of an
average bearing stress acting
over the projected area of the
rivet's shank onto a plate.
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Other methods of failure

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Eccentric riveted and bolted
connections
• The foregoing discussion of riveted and bolted
connections applies to situations where the line of
action of the applied force passes through the
centroid of a rivet group.
If the point of intersection of
E1 and E2 is denoted by B, it
is seen that an inclined force
E3 must pass through B to
cause no twisting of plate.

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• Point B is synonymous with the centroid of rivet areas,
since in most practical cases the resistance of a rivet
depends on its cross-sectional area.

• A force acting in any direction, but passing through the

centroid of rivet areas, is the former problem of a
concentrically loaded connection.

• However, since forces are not always applied through

this point, eccentrically loaded connections result.

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• The average direct shear stress τs on all rivets is
P
τs =
nA
where A is the cross-sectional area of one rivet.

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• The second problem, is a problem of torsion, in
which the applied torque T is equal to Pe.

• In this problem, if it is assumed that the plate is

rigid and that it twists around the point B, the
shearing strains in rivets vary linearly from B.

• Further, if the rivets are assumed to be elastic, the

average shearing stress in each rivet also varies
linearly from B.

• Therefore this problem resembles the torsion

problem of a circular shaft.
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• The torsional shearing stresses τ on any one rivet from
the centre of all rivet areas become
Ty Tx
τx = τy =
Σ( x + y ) A
2 2 Σ( x 2 + y 2 ) A

• And corresponding shear forces become

Ty Tx
Fx = Fy =
Σ( x + y )
2 2 Σ( x 2 + y 2 )

• A vectorial superposition of the direct and torsional

shearing stresses (or forces) given by the above
equations gives the total shearing stress (or force)
acting on any one rivet. The highest stressed rivet can
usually be found by inspection.

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