Experimental investigation on static performances of steel nodes with S-shaped bolt holes

• Published in: Structures (Oxford) Vol. 54; pp. 1637 - 1648
• Main Authors: Xiong, Wei, Lv, Jun, Hu, Zhiyou, Geng, Zhefei, Ren, Bing, Yao, Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Friction self-locking; Loading direction; S-node; Slip; Uneven settlement; S-node; Loading direction; Uneven settlement; Slip; Friction self-locking
• ISSN: 2352-0124; 2352-0124
• DOI: 10.1016/j.istruc.2023.05.123

Building foundations in the frigid plateau region are frequently subsided or arched under the environment of perennial freeze–thaw cycle. More attention should be paid to the effects of nonuniform settlement or foundation arching on the engineering structures. To improve the adaptability of engineering structures to uneven settlement, this study presented a steel structure node with S-shaped bolt holes (S-node) from the node’s connection configuration and conducted experimental studies and finite element analysis on the node’s static and slip performances. The experimental results show that the S-node can release the vertical load (or displacement) within limits, and effectively transmit the horizontal load. The slip performance of the S-node depends on the slip performance of the high-strength bolts in the S-shaped holes. The curvature of the S-shaped hole exhibited different effects on the displacement and bearing capacity of the node under different loading directions. The conclusions in this study verified that the S-node can not only adapt to the building foundation’s nonuniform settlement or arching, but also transmit the horizontal force caused by wind load and earthquake action normally. This research can provide a new solution and theoretical supports for dealing with the problem of nonuniform settlement or arching of foundations using S-node.