Fatigue of Joints with Staggered Holes

Abstract

It is customary in contemporary design for fatigue resistance of bolted connections to use slip-critical joints. However, many existing bridges are more likely to have bearing-type joints that use either rivets or high-strength bolts. Moreover, in many of these cases, hole patterns are staggered. Fatigue fracture of tension members with bearing-type joints that use staggered holes is observed to take place on a plane perpendicular to the axis of the member. The