Behavior of double-shear high strength steel bolted connections at elevated temperatures

2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK. This paper presents an experimental research program on the effects of elevated temperatures on double-shear bolted connections made of ultra-high strength steel with a nominal yield stress of 1150 MPa. A total of 21 specimens having three different configurations are tested at eight different temperatures ranging from 20◦ C to 700◦ C. Two types of failure modes are studied, namely: block shear fracture and net section tension fracture. The simultaneous shear and tensile rupture mechanism of block shear failure is observed for the first time. The mechanism is feasible for materials with very low ductility. At temperatures higher than 300◦ C, the AISC block shear provision becomes very conservative as ductility increases. For the net section fracture mode, the AISI and the AISC provisions are comparable to each other