STEEL CONNECTIONS

Lalit R. Patil
Reg ID C1652004
INTRODUCTION
 Connections are structural elements used for joining
different members of a structural steel frame work. Any
steel structure is an assemblage of different members such
as beam, columns, and tension members, which are
fastened or connected to one another, usually at the
member ends.

To ensure that the connection can carry the applied loads,

a designer must check for all perceivable modes of failure
COMPONENTS OF A CONNECTION

Bolts Welds

Connecting Plates Connecting Angles

CLASSIFICATION OF CONNECTIONS

According to the type of connecting medium used:
i) Riveted connections
ii) Bolted connections
iii) Welded connections
iv) Bolted–welded connections
v) Pinned connections

According to the type of internal forces the connections are
expected to transmit:
i) Shear (semi rigid, simple) connections
ii) Moment (rigid) connections

According to the type of structural elements that made up the
connections:
i) Single plate angle connections
ii) Double web angle connections
iii) Top and seated angle connections,
iv) Seated beam connections, etc.

 According to the type of members the connections are joining:

i) Beam to beam connections
ii) Column to column connections (column splices)
iii) Beam to column connections
iv) Column base plate, etc.
1. RIVETED CONNECTIONS
 A rivet is made up of a
round ductile steel bar
called shank, with a head
at one end.
 The installation of the rivet
requires heating of the rivet
and inserting it to an
oversize hole applying
pressure to the performed
head while at the same
time squeezing the plain
end of the rivet using a
pneumatic driver form a
round head
RIVETING IS NO LONGER USED IN ENGINEERING
STRUCTURES DUE TO:
1. The introduction of high strength structural
bolts.
2. The necessity of pre heating the rivets prior to
driving.
3. The labour costs associated with large riveting
crews
4. The cost involved in careful inspection and
removal of poorly installed rivets.
5. The high level of noise associated with driving
rivets.
BOLTED CONNECTIONS

Bolted connections are
connections whose
components are fastened
together primarily by bolts
(fasteners). Depending on
the direction and line of
action of the loads relative
to the orientation and
location of the bolts, the
bolts may be loaded in
tension, shear, or a
combination of tension and
shear
 Two types of bolts are used in bolted connection:

1. Bearing type bolts

. Black bolts
Turned bolts
. Ribbed bolts
The main disadvantage of bearing type of bolted connections is that the elements
undergo some slip even under a small shear, before being able to transfer force by
bearing

2. High strength friction grip bolts (HSFG)

In HSFG bolted joints, high strength bolts (8G or 10K grade) are pre-tensioned
against the plates to be bolted together, so that contact pressure is developed
between the plates being joined.
 BOLTED CONNECTIONS

 Advantages
1. The bolting operation is very silent, in contrast to the
hammering noise in riveting.
2. Bolting is a cold process; hence there is no risk of fire.
3. Bolting operation is more quicker than riveting.
4. Less man power is required in making the connections.


Disadvantages
1. The bolted connections, if subjected to vibratory loads, results in
reduction in strength if they get loosened.
2. Bolted connections for a given diameter of bolt, have lesser
strength in axial tension since the net area at the root of the
threads is less.
3. Unfinished bolts have lesser strength because of non uniform
diameter
WELDED CONNECTIONS

Welded connections are connections whose components are joined
together primarily by welds. Welds can be classified according to:

The types of welds: Groove, Fillet, Plug, and Slot

•The positions of the welds: Horizontal, Vertical,
Overhead, And Flat
•The types of joints: Butt, Lap, Corner, Edge, And Tee
WELDED CONNECTIONS
 TYPES OF FAILURES IN BOLTED
CONNECTIONS
DUCTILITY IS THE MAIN ATTRIBUTE OF STEEL MOMENT CONNECTIONS AND THE FAILURE
MODES CONTROL IT.

a)Shearing
Failure
of bolt

b) Bearing
Failure
of bolt

c) Tearing
Failure
of bolt
TYPES OF FAILURES IN BOLTED
CONNECTIONS

d) Tearing Failure of plate

e) Bearing Failure of plate
f) Block Shear Failure of plate
 Block shear is a limit state that should be
accounted for during the design of steel tension
members. This failure mechanism combines a
tensile failure on one plane and a shear failure on
a perpendicular plane
EFFECT OF ELEVATED TEMPERATURE ON
STEEL CONNECTIONS

 Importance
To provide greater flexibility in
fire safety design for complex and
unusual buildings, and to provide
tools to mitigate fire related
hazards that follow other extreme
events, including earthquakes
and terrorist attacks
For transforming building fire
safety design from a prescriptive
to a performance-based
environment.
EFFECT OF ELEVATED TEMPERATURE ON STEEL
CONNECTIONS

 Structural steel’s poor performance in fire has long been

attributed to a loss of strength and stiffness due to thermal
degradation

 Thermal conductivity is the measure of how rapidly the given

material will conduct heat. For steel; thermal conductivity is a
function of both temperature and the composition of the steel.

 Structural members, when exposed to fire, experience loss of

capacity and stiffness due to temperature induced degradation in
strength and modulus properties of constituent materials. When
the capacity at the critical section of a beam drops below the
applied moment due to loading failure occurs in the member. The
time to reach this failure is referred to as fire resistance.

 Also, in the case of beams with slender webs, shear capacity

degrades at a much rapid pace than flexural capacity due to local
buckling occurring in webs resulting from rapid rise in
temperatures in webs.
SRESS STRAIN CURVE AT DIFFERENT TEMP.
RESPONSE OF STEEL BEAMS TO FIRE
 In conventional design, beams are
subjected to significant levels of
bending moment and thus failure
typically occurs when the applied
moment due to loading at the
critical section exceeds the
moment capacity
 Effect of shear force can dominate
fire response of steel beams
subjected to high concentrated
loads close to supports. In such
scenarios, failure of a fire exposed
beam can occur under shear limit
state rather than flexural limit
state
BEAM TO COLUMN CONNECTION AT
ELEVATED TEMP.

 In extended endplate connection, the

most common failure mode in fire is bolt
fracture in tension. Therefore, if larger
or higher grade bolts are used, the
beam's survival temperature can be
effectively prolonged

 The most effective method is to use the

bolts that can achieve high elongation
such as Fire Resistant bolts. The results
of this research indicate that by using
FR bolts, the survival temperature of
the structure may be increased by more
than 150 °C compared to the limiting
temperature that is currently used in
design.
STEEL COLUMN BEHAVIOUR AT
ELEVATED TEMP
Axial Shortening and Yield at
top of column

This expansion would be restricted by the

stiffness of the much larger column if it
were present, causing large compressive
stress within the smaller column
Specific Heat Of Steel at Sress Strain Curve OF Steel
Different temp
RESULTS

Graph of Strain Vs Temp for steel

CONCLUSION

 Sound connection design is essential for safety and economy of

steel structures considering into account all different modes of
failures .Economical connection designs mostly take into
account practicalities of fabrication and erection.

 The detailing of connection should be simple and be based on

repetitive use of standard practices to facilitate ease of
fabrication and erection, thus accure speed and economy to the
project.

 Yield stress fy and Young’s Modulus of Elasticity E, were

compiled to develop expressions describing their reduction
with temperature.
REFERENCES

 IS 800 (2007)- Different failures in Bolted Conncections

 Dowling, P.J., Knowles, P.R., Graham, W. O. (1988), “Structural Steel Design”, Steel
Construction Institute, Butterworths, London

 Dowling, P.J., Knowles, P.R., Graham, W. O. (1999) Beam Moment connections

 Colin A Rogers Gregory J Hancock (2004)- Failures in steel Connections

 IIT Guwahati Lectures on Steel Connections Design

 Ian Burgess, Prof.; John Buick Davison, Senior Lect.; Gang Dong; Shan-Shan Huang,
(2012)- Fire impact on steel building.

 LSD of steel structures by S K Duggal

 ASCE Journals
Thank You !
SUMMARY OF RELEVANT TECHNICAL
PAPERS

 Joseph S. Huang Wai F. ChenLynn s. Beedl(1995) made an

observation that One of the determining factors of economy in
structural steel design is the moment-resisting beam-to-column
connections. The selection of connections is often based upon
simplicity, duplication and ease of erection. The designer should avoid
complicated and costly fabrication. Welded connections providing full
continuity are commonly used in plastically designed structures, This
type of connection can be expensive because vertical groove welds on
beam webs must be made iLl the field 0

Conclusion - Steel framing costs can be reduced if proper attention is

given to moment~resisting beam-to-colum~ connections. Realistic
design rules for connections should consider not only strength and
rigidity but also economical fabrication and erection. In this study, a
new theory is developed to analyze connections that are subjected to
severe [Link] conditions. It is assumed that the bending moment
exceeding the yield moment of a beam section is carried by flanges
due .to strain-hardening, and the shear force·is resisted by the web.
 Colin A Rogers Gregory J Hancock (2004) has three common
approaches to determine the The ultimate load carrying capacity of a
connection will be governed by one of many possible failure modes
including; bearing, end pull-out, net section fracture, bolt shear, block
shear rupture.
This research report details the behaviour associated with bearing
and net section failure of bolted connections loaded in shear. Failure
mode behaviour has been documented with the use of observations
recorded during the testing of a total of 176 bolted connection
specimens (Rogers and Hancock, 1997, 1998a,b). Bearing behaviour
includes piling of the sheet material in front of the bolts, as well as
the material tearing associated with out-of-plane sheet distortion.
Conclusion
Upon close observation, the failure modes of bolted connections which
exhibit tearing of the sheet material may belong to the bearing mode
of failure. Localised tearing of the sheet may occur with extreme out-
of-plane deformations of the sheet caused by either curling at the end
of the specimen, or as a result of the increased deformation capacity
intrinsic to mild sheet steels (G300). Test specimens which exhibit
these types of localised tears can be adequately designed with the use
of the proposed gradated bearing design method (Rogers and Hancock
)
 Dowling, P.J., Knowles, P.R., Graham, W. O. (1999) Margins of
safety of any design, in particular that of connection, involves
uncertainty due to random nature of (a) the forces acting on the
structure and (b) the actual strength of the joint designed.
The randomness of the loads has been discussed in an earlier chapter;
that of the actual strength is due to the variability of the dimensions
of the elements and that of the strength of constituent material as
well as errors due to simplification in analysis and design. The
reasons for the high uncertainty and complexity of the connection are:
¾ Complexity of connection geometry ¾ Geometric imperfections ¾
Residual stresses and strains
Conclusion
Sound connection design is essential for safety and economy of steel
structures. Economical connection designs mostly take into account
practicalities of fabrication and erection. True behaviour of
connections is complex, variable and very difficult to analyse exactly.
However, the connection design should be simple and
straightforward, based on a clear understanding of the load transfer
path, the effect of stiffness of elements in the path on the force
distributed to the elements in the connection and the effect of
ductility on the connection behaviour. The detailing of connection
should be simple and be based on repetitive use of standard practices
to facilitate ease of fabrication and erection, thus accure speed and
economy to the project.
 Ian Burgess, Prof.; John Buick Davison, Senior Lect.; Gang Dong;
Shan-Shan Huang, (2012)
Connections are critical structural elements of building frames, and in a fire are
subject to forces very different from those at the ambient temperature for
which they are designed. The fracture of a connection can cause the collapse of
the connected beam, which may lead to a progressive collapse sequence
affecting the entire building. This paper overviews the sequence of research on
connection behaviour in a fire at the University of Sheffield.

Conclusion
The response of structural frames subject to fire is highly dependent on the
behaviour of their joints. During initial heating, compressive forces are
generated in the beam-to-column connections due to the restrained thermal
expansion of the beams. Some connections can fail due to this force, which has
been suggested as the cause of failure of 7 World Trade.48 As temperatures
rise further, the compression is progressively reduced by sagging deflection of
the beam and by degradation of material strength and stiffness. At very high
temperatures, the beam may have lost nearly all its bending stiffness and
experiences very large deflection. At this stage, the beam actually hangs in
catenary tension between its end connections, and whether the connections
have sufficient “tying” capacity determines whether they will fracture. The
ductile design of connections is important because the connection forces, both
in compression and in catenary tension, can be reduced considerably if the
connections themselves can deform and accommodate the end movements of
the beams. It is essential to understand the behaviour of connections in order
to predict the global frame response to fire.
