Investigating the Behavior and Reliability of Eccentrically Loaded Steel Connections Made with Bolts and Welds in Combination
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 12
Abstract
This paper investigates the behavior of eccentrically loaded connections made by combining fillet welds and high-strength pretensioned bolts. New models are introduced for characterizing the load-deformation behavior of slip-resistant bolted connections with different faying surface conditions. These models are utilized to improve the ability of the instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) method to predict the capacity of eccentrically loaded connections utilizing friction as a load-transfer mechanism including bolted-only and/or bolted-welded combination connections. Experimental results are used to quantify the accuracy of the ICR method in predicting the capacity of these combination connections considering different connecting elements to be participating in a single load resisting system. Finite-element (FE) analysis is used to investigate the load-transfer mechanisms within the combination connections. Reliability analysis is conducted using FE analysis assisted by machine learning to quantify the reliability level of the investigated connections and establish the resistance factors necessary to maintain the reliability level above prescribed thresholds. The reliability analysis shows that using the ICR method for designing these combination connections leads to a highly reliable connection for different types of faying surfaces.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), Project No. AR18-037. The opinions and conclusions presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organizations.
References
Abbasianjahromi, H., and S. Shojaeikhah. 2021. “Structural reliability assessment of steel four-bolt unstiffened extended end-plate connections using Monte Carlo simulation and artificial neural networks.” Iran. J. Sci. Technol. Trans. Civ. Eng. 45 (1): 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-020-00480-z.
AISC. 2006. Manual of steel construction. 13th ed. Chicago: AISC.
AISC. 2016. Specification for structural steel buildings. ANSI/AISC 360-16. Chicago: AISC.
AISC. 2017. Manual of steel construction. 15th ed. Chicago: AISC.
ASCE/SEI (ASCE/Structural Engineering Institute). 2016. Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures, 7–16. Reston, VA: ASCE/SEI.
ASTM. 2021. Standard specification for high-strength low-alloy columbium-vanadium structural steel. ASTM A572. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
AWS (American Welding Society). 2016. Standard method for mechanical testing of welds. AWS B4.0:2016. Doral, FL: AWS.
Butler, L. J., S. Pal, and G. L. Kulak. 1972. “Eccentrically loaded welded connections.” J. Struct. Div. 98 (5): 989–1005. https://doi.org/10.1061/JSDEAG.0003250.
Cornell, C. 1969. “A probability-based structural code.” ACI J. Proc. 66 (12): 974–985. https://doi.org/10.14359/7446.
Crawford, S. F., and G. L. Kulak. 1971. “Eccentrically loaded bolted connections.” J. Struct. Div. 97 (3): 765–783. https://doi.org/10.1061/JSDEAG.0002844.
Deb, K., A. Pratap, S. Agarwal, and T. A. M. T. Meyarivan. 2002. “A fast and elitist multiobjective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II.” IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 6 (2): 182–197. https://doi.org/10.1109/4235.996017.
Der Kiureghian, A., H. Z. Lin, and S. J. Hwang. 1987. “Second-order reliability approximations.” J. Eng. Mech. 113 (8): 1208–1225. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(1987)113:8(1208).
Fisher, J. 1964. On the behavior of fasteners and plates with holes (No. 288-18). Bethlehem, PA: Dept. of Civil Engineering, Fritz Engineering Laboratory, Lehigh Univ.
Galambos, T. V. 1981. “Load and resistance factor design.” Eng. J. Am. Inst. Steel Constr. 18 (3): 74–82.
Grondin, G. Y., M. Jin, and J. Georg. 2007. Structural engineering. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Alberta.
Hagan, M. T., and M. B. Menhaj. 1994. “Training feedforward networks with the Marquardt algorithm.” IEEE Trans. Neural Networks 5 (6): 989–993. https://doi.org/10.1109/72.329697.
Hess, P. E., D. Bruchman, I. A. Assakkaf, and B. M. Ayyub. 2002. “Uncertainties in material and geometric strength and load variables.” Nav. Eng. J. 114 (2): 139–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-3584.2002.tb00128.x.
Holtz, N. M., and G. L. Kulak. 1970. High-strength bolts and welds in load-sharing systems. Halifax Regional Municipality, NS, Canada: Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nova Scotia Technical College.
Jarosch, K., and M. Bowman. 1986. “Tension butt joints with bolts and welds in combination.” Eng. J. Am. Inst. Steel Constr. 23 (1): 25–35.
Kang, L., H. Ge, and T. Kato. 2015. “Experimental and ductile fracture model study of single-groove welded joints under monotonic loading.” Eng. Struct. 85 (Feb): 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2014.12.006.
Kaufmann, E. J., B. Metrovich, and A. W. Pense. 2001. Characterization of cyclic inelastic strain behavior on properties of A572 Gr. 50 and A913 Gr. 50 rolled sections. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh Univ.
Khandel, O., M. F. Tamimi, M. Soliman, B. W. Russell, and C. D. Waite. 2022. “Reliability assessment of connections with slip-critical bolts and fillet welds in combination.” J. Constr. Steel Res. 188 (Jan): 107036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2021.107036.
Kim, D.-K., and C.-H. Lee. 2020. “Experimental and analytical study of combined bolted-welded lap joints including high-strength steel.” J. Constr. Steel Res. 168 (May): 105995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2020.105995.
Konakli, K., and B. Sudret. 2016. “Global sensitivity analysis using low-rank tensor approximations.” Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf. 156 (Dec): 64–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2016.07.012.
Kulak, G. L. 1975. “Eccentrically loaded slip-resistant connections.” J. Struct. Div. 12 (2): 52–55.
Kwan, Y. K., I. R. Gomez, G. Y. Grondin, and A. M. Kanvinde. 2010. “Strength of welded joints under combined shear and out-of-plane bending.” Can. J. Civ. Eng. 37 (2): 250–261. https://doi.org/10.1139/L09-150.
Leon, R. T., J. Hoffman, and T. Staeger. 1996. Design of partially restrained composite connections. Chicago: AISC.
Lesik, D. F., and D. L. Kennedy. 1990. “Ultimate strength of fillet welded connections loaded in-plane.” Can. J. Civ. Eng. 17 (1): 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1139/l90-008.
Li, C., G. Y. Grondin, and R. G. Driver. 2007. Reliability analysis of concentrically loaded fillet welds. Rep. No. 271. Edmonton, AB, Canada: Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Alberta.
Lue, D.-M., C.-Y. Liao, C.-C. Chang, and W.-T. Hsu. 2017. “Improved analysis of bolted shear connection under eccentric loads.” J. Mar. Sci. Technol. 25 (4): 22–35. https://doi.org/10.6119/JMST-017-0223-1.
Manuel, T. J., and G. L. Kulak. 2000. “Strength of joints that combine bolts and welds.” J. Struct. Eng. 126 (3): 279–287. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(2000)126:3(279).
Marelli, S., and B. Sudret. 2014. “UQLab: A framework for uncertainty quantification in Matlab.” In Vulnerability, uncertainty, and risk: Quantification, mitigation, and management. Reston, VA: ASCE.
MathWorks. 2020. MATLAB: The language of technical computing: Computation, visualization, programming. Natick, MA: MathWorks.
Mehta, S., M. Rastegari, L. Shapiro, and H. Hajishirzi. 2019. “Espnetv2: A light-weight, power-efficient, and general-purpose convolutional neural network.” In Proc., IEEE/CVF Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. New York: IEEE.
Melchers, R. E., and A. T. Beck. 2018. Structural reliability analysis and prediction. Newcastle, NSW, Australia: Wiley.
Sajid, H. U., and R. Kiran. 2018. “Influence of high stress triaxiality on mechanical strength of ASTM A36, ASTM A572 and ASTM A992 steels.” Constr. Build. Mater. 176 (Jul): 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.05.018.
Saltelli, A., P. Annoni, I. Azzini, F. Campolongo, M. Ratto, and S. Tarantola. 2010. “Variance based sensitivity analysis of model output. Design and estimator for the total sensitivity index.” Comput. Phys. Commun. 181 (2): 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2009.09.018.
Shi, Y. J., L. Wang, Y. Q. Wang, J. S. Ma, and R. S. Bai. 2011. “Proposed design method of combined connections with bolts and longitudinal welds.” Appl. Mech. Mater. 94 (Oct): 923–928. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.94-96.923.
Shittu, A. A., A. Kolios, and A. Mehmanparast. 2020. “A systematic review of structural reliability methods for deformation and fatigue analysis of offshore jacket structures.” Metals 11 (1): 50. https://doi.org/10.3390/met11010050.
Simulia, D. S. 2018. ABAQUS 6.14: ABAQUS/CAE user’s guide. Providence, RI: Dassault Systèmes Simulia.
Sobol, I., and Y. L. Levitan. 1999. “A pseudo-random number generator for personal computers.” Comput. Math. Appl. 37 (4–5): 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0898-1221(99)00057-7.
Sobol, I. M. 2001. “Global sensitivity indices for nonlinear mathematical models and their Monte Carlo estimates.” Math. Comput. Simul. 55 (1–3): 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4754(00)00270-6.
Soliman, M., B. Russell, C. Waite, L. Shen, and E. Stringer. 2021. Understanding the behavior of steel connections with bolts and welds in combination. Chicago: AISC.
Waite, C. D., L. Shen, M. Soliman, and B. W. Russell. 2022. “Experimental investigation into the capacity of concentrically loaded steel connections with pretensioned high-strength bolts and longitudinal fillet welds in combination.” Eng. J. Am. Inst. Steel Constr. 59 (3): 159–180.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 12 • December 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 29, 2022
Accepted: Jun 8, 2023
Published online: Sep 20, 2023
Published in print: Dec 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Feb 20, 2024
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.