Analysis and design of bolted connections in cold formed steel members

The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate, both analytically and experimentally, the behaviour of bolted joints in cold formed steel members. To this aim, the influences of all factors bearing a significant effect on behaviour of bolted connections in cold formed steel assemblies and structures have been investigated. Design expressions have been derived. With this information the moment capacity of bolted joints can be calculated with considerably more accuracy than the present existing expressionsin the current codeso f practice. The findings of the thesis have already influenced the design expressions for bearing strength of bolted connections in the European code of practice for design of cold formed steel sections, i. e. Eurocode No 3, Annex A. It is hoped that the conclusions drawn are further incorporated in the above mentioned code, and replace the existing guidelines in the British Standard, BS 5950 Part 5, for the design of such sections. Furthermore for the first time ever, as a result of the analyses and experiments carried out, designers are able to predict the moment-rotation relationship of such connections without having to resort to testing. It is intended to feed this information into design programmes to radically affect the elastic design of cold formed steel structures. It should then be possible to design optimum structures by specifying joints with appropriate characteristics