Experimental study of the curling effect on connection resistance for ferritic stainless steel

Abstract

In the past several years, there has been a considerable rise in numerical and experimental studies into stainless steel that are concerned with steel buildings. This fact is related to the greater satisfaction that these materials may offer in comparison to carbon steel, including corrosion resistance, durability, fire resistance, and increased aesthetic quality. On the other hand, present design regulations and standards continue to be mostly based on analogies to carbon steel that do not take into account stainless steel's hardening reaction. The curling effect can diminish the load-carrying capacity of bolted connections, hence the current work focused on developing experimental experiments to look into the curling impact on stainless steel bolted connection’s strength. In this study, a total of 15 specimens of stainless steel bolted connections were used to investigate the influence of the curling effect on the bolted connections’ strength. The geometric imperfections of specimens were measured, the ultimate load and deformations were determined using tension testing, and the test findings were compared to the requirements of the existing design provisions to assess their adequacy. Results from tension tests showed 13 – 64% strength reduction on connections with curling compared to connections without curling. Two design provisions, EN1993-1-4 and SEI/ASCE 8-02 were compared with the tested result, and it was found that both provisions are conservative. Hence, further numerical investigations are necessary to develop new design equations that consider the effect of curling on the design resistance.