Mechanical behavior of connection between steel earth-retaining beams without compression side splice plate

Abstract

This study focuses on connections of steel earth-retaining beams used in underground construction. Although these connections have been used for decades, the yield and maximum bearing capacity and collapse process are not cleared. Therefore, this study conducted four-points loading test to obvious these mechanical behaviors. The experiment results show that the yielding of end-plate joint is dominant in the yield capacity of the earth-retaining-beam connections. Further, the presence or absence of a splice plate on the compression side of the retaining member has no effect on the yield and maximum bearing capacity, indicating that the splice plate on the compression side can be omitted under pure bending conditions.