Connections in steel structures

a) To connect different steel members and sheets to complete structures.

b) To form cross-sections and members from the final steel making products, such as cross-
sections from steel plates, built-up members from rolled or welded sections and plates etc.

c) To splice members which are delivered in partial length due to transportation restrains and
form members of full length.

Depending on the type of the connecting media, connections are distinguished in:

a) Connections with mechanical connecting media such as bolts, pins, rivets, screws
etc.

b) Welded connections.
Avoid connection failure before member failure

1. For an economical design, usually it is important that the connection develops the full
strength of the members.

2. Usually connection failure is not as ductile as that of steel member failure. Hence, it is
desirable to avoid connection failure to ensure more ductile failure of structure.

Connections are considered to be the critical components of steel structures

3. They have the potential for greater variability in behavior and strength.

4. They are more complex to design than members.

5. Their failure may lead to the failure of the entire structure.

Bolted connections

1. Rivets

2. Bolts
a) Black Bolts
b) HSFG (high strength Friction grip) bolts
 Clamp action:

When hot driven rivets

are properly cooled
down then the diameter
and shank length get
reduced. Because of
this, the compression of
the plates occurs and
that results in friction
between the plates, this
process is called as
clamp action.

IS: 1929-1982 and IS: 2155-1982 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBwmbX3R3sk

The bolts are available from 5 to 36 mm in diameter
and are designated as M5 to M36.

In structural steel work the most common ones are

M16, M20, M24 to M30.
IS: 1363-2002
IS: 800 stipulates that the net tensile area of bolt to be considered is the area at the root of the
threads and are given in Table 5.1. This area is also called the stress area or proof area.

Light structures subjected to static loads and for secondary members such as
purlins, bracings, etc., and for roof trusses.

Not recommended for connections subjected to impact load, vibration and

fatigue.

Forged from low carbon or mild steel circular rods

 The high strength bolts are
available in sizes from 16 to
36 mm and are designated as
M16, M20, M24 and M30.

The most commonly used bolts are of 8.8S and 10.9S

property class.
 High-Strength Friction-Grip bolts

1. HSFG bolts provide a rigid joint. There is no slip between the elements connected.

2. Large tensile stresses are developed in bolts, which in turn provide large clamping force to the elements
connected. High frictional resistance is developed providing a high static strength of the joint.

3. Because of the clamping action, load is transmitted by friction only and the bolts are not subjected to shear and
bearing.

4. The frictional resistance is effective outside the hole and therefore lesser load is transmitted through the net
section; the possibility of failure at the net section is minimised.

5. There is no stress concentration in the holes, and therefore, the fatigue strength is more.

6. The tension in bolts is uniform. Also, the bolts are tensioned up to proof load preventing the nuts from
loosening.

7. Few persons are required to make the connections, thus cost is reduced.

10. For same strength, lesser number of bolts are required as compared to rivets/ ordinary bolts which bring
overall economy.
Installation Methods (Load Transfer Mechanism )

1. Snug tight
No clamping force, The plate will slip until they bear on the bolts., Bearing-type
connections , Black Bolts

2. Pre-tensioned.

Significant clamping force between the connected parts , Force between members to be
transferred by friction , No movement between the members until the friction capacity is
overcome. , Friction-type or Non-Slip connection or Friction grip-type bolting.
Advantages of High strength friction grip bolts (HSFG)

2. Load transfer efficiency

3. Structural efficiency
4. Economy
Size of the
bolt holes

Drilling
Punching
Arrangement
of bolts
Types of Bolted Joints
Simple connections
Lap and Butt connections Load transfer – shear and direct bearing
Truss connections
Flexible beam to column connection
Tension connections

Eccentric connections

Resultant of applied loads acts at an eccentricity from centroid of the bolt

group. Shear force, twisting or bending moment

Moment resisting connections

Resisting moment. Sufficient rigidity to prevent rotation

LAP JOINT

Eccentricity

Bending
BUTT JOINT
Bolted joints

1. Lap Joint

2. Butt Joint
Load Transfer Mechanism

1.Bearing type mechanism

Ordinary bolts
Load transfer by shear and bearing

2. Slip-resistant connection
HSFG Bolts
Load transfer by Friction
The bearing method assumes that the bolt contacts the side of a hole and there
is a compressive force between the bolt and the side of the hole.

The magnitude of this compressive force is limited by the strength of the

member's material to handle this compressive force.
In bearing-type connections, it is assumed that the load to be transferred is larger
than the frictional resistance caused by tightening the bolts, consequently members
slip a little over each other, placing the bolts in shear and bearing.

The number of bolts required for making the connection is given by load divided by strength of
the bolt.

Generally, a minimum of two or three bolts are provided even if one is required.

The strength of a bolt is the minimum of strengths of bolt in shear, bearing and tension

The strength of a bolt multiplied with the number of bolts in the joint gives the strength of joint
on the basis of bolts.

However, the failure of a joint can be in bolt or in plate.

Thus the strength of a joint will be the minimum of the strength of joint on the basis of strength of
bolts in the joint and net tensile strength of plate.
PRYING FORCES
 HSFG Bolts

1.Parallel Shank bolt

2.Waisted shank bolt
HSFG Bolts
BLOCK SHEAR
Block shear failure is a limit state that combines tension failure on one plane and shear failure on a perpendicular plane
(Fig. 1).

The guidelines assume that, when one plane reaches ultimate strength, the other plane develops full yield.

Therefore, two possible failure modes can develop:

1. Rupture occurs along the net tension plane and full yield develops along the gross shear plane.
2. Rupture occurs along the net shear plane while full yield develops along the gross tension plane.
Efficiency of joints
Check list
1. What is the design philosophy of bolted joints ?
2. What is shear area of the bolt?
3. What is net tensile area of the bolt ?
4. What is the bearing area of the bolt ?
5. What does 4.6 and 8.8 means ?
6. What is stress concentration factor ?. Where it is maximum and its value for uniaxial ?
7. What is clamping action ?
8. How rivets and HSFG bolts generate clamping action ?
9. How does HSFG bolts resist load ?
10.What is parallel and waisted shank HSFG bolts?
11.After slippage How to design HSFG bolt?
12.What is pitch and gauge ?
13.What are prying forces ?
14.What is block shear failure ?
15.What is meant by efficiency of the joint ?
16.How many modes of failures are there for a bolted joint ?
17.Why sqrt (3) comes in shear ?
 Welded connections
Welding is the process of joining metal pieces (the base metal) together by heating them to the point
that molten filler material mixes with the base metal to form one continuous piece.

The welding process involves melting the metal at the joint and fusing it with additional metal from
a welding rod.

The melting of the metal is achieved by high temperature of the order of 3300°C with the heat from
either an electric arc or an oxyacetylene torch. On cooling, the weld material and base metal form a
continuous and almost homogeneous joint.

To protect the weld from excessive oxidation, a heavily coated welding rod is used which releases an
inert gas that envelops the arc stream, this technique is called shielded arc process

The process of welding is complex and the strength of welds is highly dependent on
metallurgy,welding procedure and the skill of the welder.
IS 816 and IS 9595
IS 814 – welding electrodes
Fillet Weld
Weld defects
Assumptions in the design of welded joints

1. The welds connecting the various parts are homogeneous, isotropic and
elastic elements.

2. The parts connected by the weld are rigid and their deformations are
therefore, neglected.

3. Only stresses due to external loads are considered. Effects of residual

stresses, stress concentrations and shape of the welds are neglected.
Fillet Weld
 THROAT THICKNESS

The effective throat thickness of a fillet weld is the shortest distance from its root to the line joining
the toes, i.e., face of the weld as illustrated in Figure

As per IS:800 stipulation, the effective throat thickness of a fillet weld should not be less than 3 mm
and it should not exceed 0.7t, or 1.0 t under special circumstances, where t is the thickness of the
thinner plate of elements being welded.

For the purpose of stress calculation in fillet welds connecting faces inclined to each other, the
effective throat thickness is taken as

te = K x Size of the weld = K x S

where K is a constant, depending upon the angle between fusion faces, as given in
Effective Length
Length of the weld should be more than less than four times the size of the weld.

The effective length of a weld is the actual length of weld minus two times the weld size

The perpendicular distance between longitudinal fillets should not be more than 16 times, the thickness of the
thinner part.

If it is more, plug or slot welds are used to prevent buckling or separation of parts. Transverse spacing
between longitudinal welds should not be more than 32t or 300 mm.

If the maximum length lj of the side welds transferring shear

along its length exceeds 150 te , the reduction in weld strength as
per the long joint should be considered.
Effective Area of Weld

The effective area of a fillet weld through its throat governs the shear and normal load carrying capacities of
fillet welded joints.

This area of a fillet weld is taken as the product of its effective length and effective throat thickness.

For a fillet weld of size S and effective length Lw, the effective or shearing area is

Aw = Lw te = Lw (KS)

where S is the size of weld in mm and K is throat thickness constant.

Smaller of the ultimate stresses
of the weld or of the base metal
may be considered
conservatively

Thus eliminating the

requirement for separate
checking the strength of base
material.
A fillet weld may be subjected to direct (tensile or compressive), bending (tensile or compressive) and
shear stresses but shear controls the design since the fillet weld always fails in shear. The design steps
for fillet welds are as follows.

1. The size S of the weld is assumed based on the thickness of the members to be jointed.

2. The strength of the fillet weld is calculated by Equation.

3. Effective length of the weld is calculated by dividing the factored pull or thrust by the strength of
weld/mm. The length can either be adjusted as longitudinal fillet welds or as transverse fillet welds. It
is a common practice to treat both the welds as if they are stressed equally.

4. If the length of the weld exceeds 150 tt, the design capacity of weld is reduced by the factor

5. If only a longitudinal fillet weld is made, a check is provided to see that the length of each
longitudinal fillet weld is more than the perpendicular distance between them.

6. End returns of length twice the size of the weld are provided at each end of the longitudinal fillet
weld.
Partial penetration of groove weld

Effective throat thickness = 7/8th of the thickness of the thinner

member

Strength

Effective throat thickness = 5/8th of thickness of the thinner

member.

Complete penetration of groove weld

Effective throat thickness = thickness of

the thinner member
Plug and Slot Welds

1. Width or diameter ≥ 3t and 25 mm whichever is more.

2. Corner radius in slotted hole ≥ l.5t and 12 mm whichever is more.

3. Clear distance between holes ≥ 2t and 25 mm whichever is more, where t is the thickness
of plate having hole.

4. Plug welds are not generally designed to carry loads.

5. Combination of plug of welds with other welds is permitted and the combined strength is
the sum of the individual capacities of the welds.
Intermittent Fillet Welds

1. The effective length of intermittent fillet weld should not be less than four times the weld
size, with a minimum of 40 mm.

2. Clear spacing between the effective lengths of intermittent fillet weld:

Clear spacing ≤ 12 t (for compression)
≤ 12 t (for tension)
≤ 200 mm
where t is the thickness of thinner plate.

3. The intermittent welds are not to be used in positions

subject to dynamic, repetitive and alternating
stresses.
Welding Vs Bolts

1. Economical.

2. Rigidity

3. Continuous structure. Architecture

4. Faster construction

5. Efficiency -100 %
Check list
1. What is the design philosophy of Welded joints ?
2. Weld metal or parent metal which has higher strength ?
3. Which stress (Weld or parent) will you use in estimating design strength?
4. What is size of the weld ?
5. What is fillet weld ?
6. What is the minimum size of the fillet weld ?
7. What is butt weld ?
8. What do you mean by effective throat thickness ?
9. What is the throat area ?
10.What is end returns ?. Why it is required ?
11.Keeping area same More length less size weld or less length and more size ?
12.How does Welding resist load ?
13. what is the efficiency of the welded joint ?
14. What is lamellar tear ?
TENSION MEMBERS

A tension member or a tie is a linear

member carrying predominantly axial
tension causing its elongation
or stretching.
1. Wires and cables
2. Bars and Rods
3. Plates and flats
4. Rolled steel sections

a) Open rolled steel sections such as

angles, channels and beams or I-sections

b) Tubular or hollow sections

c) Compound and built up sections

Modes of failure in tension members (a) Gross Section Yielding (b) Net section
Rupture (c) Block Shear
1. Fail by rupture at a critical section
2. Member yields over a significant portion of its length before rupture is
reached (member becomes non-functional due to excessive elongation ).

GROSS AREA - UN-REDUCED AREA OF THE PLATE

NET AREA - REDUCED AREA OF THE PLATE DUE TO HOLES
The modified net area is called effective net area and may be defined by the following
equation
Ane = k1 k2 k3 k4 An

where k1 is the ductility factor, ( 1 )

k2 is the hole forming factor, (2 mm extra for punched holes)
k3 is the geometry factor,
k4 is the shear lag factor
and An is the net area of the section.
BLOCK SHEAR
Block shear failure is a limit state that combines tension failure on one plane and shear failure on a perpendicular plane
(Fig. 1).

The guidelines assume that, when one plane reaches ultimate strength, the other plane develops full yield.

Therefore, two possible failure modes can develop:

1. Rupture occurs along the net tension plane and full yield develops along the gross shear plane.
2. Rupture occurs along the net shear plane while full yield develops along the gross tension plane.
Check list
1. How many failures are considered in design of tension members?
2. What is the stress-strain curve of tension member with hole ?
3. Why do we use fy in yielding failure?
4. Why do we use fu in net rupture formula ?
5. What is shear lag ?
6. What happens when the hole is punched instead of drilling ?
7. How does IS code handle punched holes ?
8. Why diameter has to be increased for punched holes ?
9. How to calculate net for angle sections when both legs connected ?
10. How to calculate rupture strength for angle section with one leg connected ?
11.How does IS code calculate shear lag ?
12.What is block shear ?
13.How many planes you have to consider for block shear ?
14. why there are two formulas for block shear ?