ULTIMATE STRENGTH OF HIGH-STRENGTH BOLT CONNECTION INCLUDING BEARING CAPACITY

Abstract

To clarify the bolt bearing effect to the ultimate strength of the high-strength bolt connections, two series of testing, bolted connection applied with tension force or bending moment, were conducted in this study. From the test results, design formula, considering the bearing deformation explicitly, was proposed to evaluate the ultimate tension strength of the high-strength bolt connection; the improved accuracy compared with current design formula was also shown. Extending the proposed design formula to the bolted connection applied with bending moment, improved accuracy to predict the maximum bending strength was also shown; however, it was also reminded some refinement still needed to improve the accuracy.