Experimental and Numerical Study on Behaviors of Double-shear Four-Bolted Connection with Austenitic Stainless Steel

It is well known that stainless steel has many advantages such as superb durability, ductility, and corrosion resistance. Thus, the use of stainless steel for various structural members in construction fields is recently increasing. Structural behaviors of bolted and welded connections, compressive and flexural members, beam-column joints, seismic devices etc. have been conducted experimentally and numerically and thus new design methods have been proposed. Hence, in this study, both experiment and finite element analysis were conducted to assess the block shear failure behaviors of double-shear four-bolted connections made of austenitic stainless steel (STS304) with thinner plate and larger end distance, which are beyond the range of previous literature. The main parameter was end distance and edge distance. Block shear strengths by parametric analysis and test results study were compared with design predictions. It is found that current design equations tended to significantly underestimated test and analysis results. Therefore, modified block shear strength equation was recommended for austenitic stainless steel double shear bolted connection treated in this study.