Behavior of an Adjustable Bolted Steel Plate Connection during Field Installation

Abstract

This paper presents a bolted steel plate connection to join steel members at a range of angles with the capability of adjusting in situ to accommodate additional angles or tolerances through cold bending. The connection features plates that are prebent (cold bent via a press brake) to defined angles, and then further cold bent during field installation (by bolt tightening) until turn-of-nut criteria are met. This approach uses a small number of unique components to facilitate prefabrication and rapid erection. Geometric studies were performed to select connection parameters for greatest adaptability to manufacturing and erection tolerances and versatility of member dimensions. A total of 13 scenarios were tested under field installation conditions to investigate the effect of the (1) bolt-tightening procedure, (2) amount and direction of field bending, and (3) plate angle on surface strains. Strains were measured using digital image correlation—an optical technique that captures full-field data. This paper presents a novel approach for bolted steel connections, measures the impact of field installation on surface strains, and makes implementation and design recommendations.