Block shear strength of high strength steel staggered bolted connections

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of block shear strength of staggered bolted connections made of high strength steel (HSS). The study aims to examine the effect of low ductility and low tensile‐to‐yield strength ratio of HSS material on the behaviour and block shear strength of staggered bolted connections. Two Q690 HSS staggered bolted connections were tested and failed in block shear failure, which was characterised by tension fracture of the staggered net tension plane and significant shear deformation along the shear plane. The test observations were further interpreted by finite element (FE) analysis. The test results and FE analysis indicate that the block shear failure mechanism of staggered bolted connections is the fracture of the staggered net tension plane combined with the yielding of the effective shear plane. Finally, the design methods in various design codes for evaluating the block shear strength of bolted connections were assessed and the results showed that the existing design methods provided inconsistent predictions of the block shear strength of HSS staggered bolted connections. More experimental and numerical works are currently in progress to further understand the block shear strength of HSS staggered bolted connections.