The Finite Element Method And Experimental Analysis Of High Strength Bolted Connections

High strength bolted connections are widely used in advanced steel structure. Connections have advantage in stability and quality approved. Besides researching for the mechanics of structure system, it is important for us to pay attention to the study of the mechanical behavior of connections. The resemblance between the real capabilities and the hypothesis in theory affects the accuracy of the calculated result greatly. We are used to evaluate the resemblance by means of experiment, but there are still some limits in this way. Nowadays finite element method brings light to the research of high strength bolted connections.At the beginning the paper explains the character of the high strength bolted tension connections, and then compares the steel structure code of China to other countries in the detail of rules about high strength bolted tension connections. At the end of this section the paper specifies three possible failure modes of the ultimate resistance, depending on the ratio between the flexural resistance of the flanges and the axial resistance of the bolts.This numerical analysis includes many nonlinear structure behaviors such as contact status nonlinearities, geometric nonlinearities and material nonlinearities. The paper defines the natural strain-stress material model, and chose the special element of conta174 and prest179 to ensure the accuracy of the analysis. The author established three T-stubs connections to simulate the three types of failure models. Furthermore a model of no prying force model and a model with stiffener were made for analysis. Finally the paper focuses on the comparison of the connection's mechanical status, when the load of 0.8Po and 0.9 Po applied on the models respectively.To verity the accuracy of finite element analysis the author carried out a series of full size model test. The experiment datum proved that the result of simulated connections is reliable.