Specification and Design of Steel Gusset-Plates

An attempt is made in this paper to supply information about the structural steel plates designed to transfer force from one member to another in a structural steel frame or bridge. The forces enter and emerge from these gusset-plates, often by means of rivets, but sometimes through welds. Since a gusset-plate is a point of discontinuity of stress transfer in a structural steel frame, it is here that failures most often occur. As early as 1867, J. W. Schwedler noted² the unequal distribution of stress among the rivets in a riveted connection. He found that the end rivets took most of the stress and the interior ones least. Likewise, the ends of a welded connection are more highly stressed than the interior. This inequality of stress transfer into a gusset-plate can be shown by stressing models of the type shown in Fig. 1, which are carved from single pieces of bakelite to simulate gusset-plates. When forces are applied through the legs to the plate, fringed photographs can be made by the aid of photo-elasticity.