ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Behaviour of Ferritic Stainless Steel Bolted T-stubs
Under Tension-Part 1: Experimental Investigations
Orhan YAPICI, Marios THEOFANOUS1, Samir DIRAR1, Huanxin YUAN2
Correspondence Abstract
Orhan YAPICI Research on stainless steel structures has primarily focused on the structural response and design of
School of Engineering individual members, whilst the response of joints has received far less attention to date. Recently, a
University of Birmingham series of experimental tests has been conducted on austenitic and duplex stainless steel moment
B15 2TT, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK.
resisting connections which highlighted both the excellent ductility and significant overstrength
[email protected]
[email protected] exhibited by such connections as well as the severe conservatism of current design rules specified in EN
1993-1-8 when applied to stainless steel joints. A comprehensive experimental study on the structural
behaviour of stainless steel T-stubs fabricated from EN 1.4003 ferritic stainless steel grade is reported in
this paper. The tested configurations included both single and double bolt rows and have been
assembled with A4-80 stainless steel bolts. In order to determine the material characteristics of the T-
stubs and the connecting bolts, tensile coupon tests were performed and the material anisotropy
exhibited by ferritic stainless steel has been quantified. The ultimate resistance, plastic deformation
capacity and failure mode of each T-stub were obtained and are reported herein. The obtained results
are utilised to assess the accuracy of existing design rules and to validate the numerical model discussed
in the companion paper.
Keywords
Stainless steel, Ferritic, T-stub, Bolted connections, Experiments.
1 Introduction Most of the published research on the behaviour of steel connections
and in particular T-stubs in tension has focused on carbon steel. This is
According to the component method specified in EN 1993-1-8 [1], the reflected in the absence of specific design guidance for stainless steel
overall response of steel connections can be evaluated by identifying connecitons in [1], despite the significantly different material response
each component contributing to the strength and stiffness of the of stainless steel, which contrary to carbon steel, does not display a yeild
connection, determining their structural behaviour and finally plateau and exhibits pronounced strain-hardening and ductility.
assembling the constituent components in a model comprising springs Connecitons are areas of a strucutre with significant stress
and rigid links from which the joint response can be determined. Within concentrations and ductility demands where the material is stressed
this framework, key components of the tension zone of bolted moment well beyond its elastic range. This is recognised in [1] and the design
resisting connections such as column flange in bending and end plate in models for T-stubs allow for redistribution of stresses and formation of
bending, are commonly modelled as equivalent T-stubs in tension [2-5]. palstic hinges thus utilising the plastic behaviour of the material. In the
Since the strength of T-stubs often limits the strength of the connections, case of carbon steel, the existence of a yield plateau justifies the use of
whilst it also contributes significantly to their flexibility, several plastic analysis assuming that the material response is limited to the
experimental and numerical studies have investigated the structural attainment of the yield strength. In the case of stainless steel, such a
behaviour of isolated T-stubs in tension [6-10]. Likewise, the post-yield simplification is not justified as there is no material specific stress limit
behaviour of T-stubs considering the geometrical and mechanical non- beyond which a drastic loss of stiffness occurs, but rather a gradual loss
linearities has been studied and various simplified approaches have been of stiffness from the onset of loading. Hence studies on the behaviour
proposed for the determination of the ultimate behaviour of the T-stubs of stainelss steel T-stubs are required.
[11-17].
Bouchaïr et al. [18], have examined the ductility and resistance of
stainless steel T-stubs with numerical investigations. It has been
concluded that the resistance predictions for stainless steel T-stubs
1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K. according to EN 1993-1-8 [1] are very conservative and it was also
2. Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. stressed that extensive numerical and experimental researches should
be conducted to confirm these conclusions. The first ever experimental
studies on stainless steel T-stubs in tension were reported by Yuan et al. paper only experimental results on T-stubs with a nominal flange
[19], who conducted 27 experimental tests on austenitic and duplex thickness of 5 mm are reported and discussed, due to the unexpected
stainless steel T-stubs. The load carrying capacity, prying effects and tensile response exhibited by the thicker material coupons, as discussed
failure modes have been documented and the effects of variations in hereafter.
flange thickness, number and strength of bolts, variation in bolt
diameter and variation in bolt preload were investigated. It was Table 1 Geometric configurations of the T-stubs.
concluded that the existing design methodology defined in EN 1993-1-8 # n m bf b1 b2 b tf tw
[1] provides overly conservative strength estimations for stainless steel
bolted T-stub connections [19]. Similar observations were made by the S1 25 75 220 50 - 100 4.88 10
authors in studies investigating for the first time the behaviour of S2 50 50 220 50 - 100 4.88 10
stainless steel moment resisting connecitons [20, 21], as well as stainless S3 75 25 220 50 - 100 4.88 10
steel blind-bolted connecitons [22]. It was found that the design D1 30 70 220 50 140 240 4.88 10
provisions of EN 1993-1-8 [1], which specify design rules for carbon D2 50 50 220 50 140 240 4.88 10
joints, that are also applicable for stainless steel joints [23], are adequate D3 30 70 220 75 90 240 4.88 10
for stiffness predictions but overly conservative for strength predictions D4 50 50 220 75 90 240 4.88 10
[20-22]. More recently, Wang et al. [24], Bu et al. [25], Song et al. [26] D5 30 70 220 100 40 240 4.88 10
and Gao et al. [27] conducted experimental and numerical studies on the
behaviour of stainless steel connections and reached similar conclusions.
The aforementioned studies focused primarily on austenitic and duplex
stainless steel grades, whilst the structural performance of ferritic
stainless steel connections has not been studied to date. Ferritic
stainless steels display lower ductility and strain-hardening than
austenitic and duplex grades but, as all stainless steels, lack a yield
plateau. Therefore their material behaviour is inbetween that of carbon
steel and austenitic stainelss steel. Hence it is not clear whether current
design provisions [1] for carbon steel joints are suitable for ferritic
stainless steel joints or whether novel design methods, such as those
recently proposed for austenitic and duplex stainless steel joints [27]
should be adopted instead. Therefore, a project studying the structural
behaviour of ferritic stainless steel conneciotns is currently underway. In
this paper, the strucutral behaviour of ferritic stainless steel bolted T-
stubs in tension is investigated experimentally, whilst numerical studies
are reported in the companion paper [28].
2 Experimental study (a)
2.1 Geometric configurations
Two T-stub configurations were tested, one employing a single bolt row
and one employing two bolt rows with various spacings. The bolt spacing
was selected within the spacing requirements of EN 1993-1-8 [1] with
some cases being close to the minimum spacing requirements. The
geometry of the tested T-stub specimens is reported in Table 1, where
n is the distance between the free edge and bolt centre line, tf is the
flange thickness, hf is the fillet weld size and m is the distance between
bolt centre and the web less 0.8hf. Additional definitions for each symbol
are shown in Fig. 1, where the geometric configuration of the tested
specimens is schematically depicted. All bolts were M16 Grade A4-80 in
18 mm clearance holes and were hand tightened, as previous studies
[19, 29] revealed that bolt preloading only affects stiffness and leaves
strength unaffected. Given that all stainless steel grades have similar
Young’s moduli, the stiffness of the ferritic T-stubs is not expected to
differ from that of T-stubs in other stainless steel or carbon steel grades.
Hence bolt preloading is not considered in this study.
The ferritic stainless steel T-stubs were fabricated by fillet welding two
hot-rolled plates in Grade EN 1.4003 at a right angle. For all specimens a
10 mm thick plate was used for the T-stub web, whilst 2 nominal
thickness sizes, 5 mm and 10 mm, were employed for the flanges. The
variation in flange thickness in conjunction with the variation in bolt
spacing was intended to produce a range of failure modes, with the focus (b)
lying primarily on T-stubs failing in mode 1, which is accompanied by Figure 1 Geometric properties of a) single bolt row and b) double bolt row T-stubs.
significant plastic deformation of the T-stub, thus allowing the effect of
material on the structural response of the T-stubs to be studied. In this 2.2 Material properties
To facilitate the analysis of the experimental results and allow numerical
simulations [28], the material properties of the T-stub specimens and the
bolts are required. Material coupons were extracted from the ferritic
stainless steel plates and tested in tension to failure. It is well-known that
ferritic stainless steels exhibit anisotropy; the material has a higher
nominal yield strength in the transverse direction than in the rolling
direction. Since in the vicinity of bolt holes connections are subjected to
complex stress fields, the material response in different orientations is
required. To quantify anisotropy, coupons were extracted in three
different directions from the plates that were used for the fabrication of
the specimens, namely along the longitudinal, transverse and diagonal
directions. The longitudinal rolling direction of the plate is indicated as
L, the transverse direction is termed T, and the diagonal direction which
is at a 45° angle to the rolling direction is defined as D.
Two identical coupons were extracted for each direction as shown in Fig.
Figure 3 Stress-strain curves of the coupons.
2(a). The coupons were tested under strain control (Fig. 2(b)) with an
applied strain rate of 0.007%/s up to the 0.2% proof stress σ0.2 and then
Table 2 Material properties of the ferritic stainless steel plates.
a strain rate of 0.025%/s was applied until fracture. The stress-strain
curves of the 5mm thick plates are shown in Fig. 3. The corresponding # E0 σ0.2 σ1.0 σ2.0 σu εu εf
n
material properties are reported Table 2, where E0 is the initial Young’s (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (%) (%)
modulus, σ0.2, σ1.0 and σ2.0 are the 0.2%, 1% and 2% proof stresses, T-1 202963 409.9 426.2 436.8 468.19 12.09 18.52 12.0
respectively, σu is the ultimate tensile stress, εu is the strain at the
T-2 183028 408.0 424.0 434.4 466.03 13.42 18.06 12.0
ultimate tensile stress, εf is the plastic strain at fracture, and n is the
Ramberg–Osgood strain hardening coefficient. D-1 178527 376.1 389.4 398.6 435.72 16.29 25.00 14.0
D-2 189723 374.5 390.8 400.1 437.48 17.04 25.00 12.0
L-1 197849 339.8 369.3 380.4 427.13 17.01 31.94 6.5
L-2 210683 334.3 365.3 376.8 425.55 17.30 30.56 6.0
Table 3 Average stress values and anisotropy ratios.
# E0 σ0.2 σ1.0 σ2.0 σu Anisotropy
(Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) ratio
T-1
192996 408.9 425.1 435.6 467.1 1.21
T-2
D-1
184125 375.3 390.1 399.3 436.6 1.11
D-2
(a) (b)
Figure 2 a) Configurations of the extracted coupons and b) experimental set up. L-1
204266 337.1 367.3 378.6 426.3 1.00
In Table 3, the average material property values form the duplicate L-2
specimens are reported for each direction. The anisotropy ratio, defined
as the ratio of the 0.2% proof stress in a particular direction over the
0.2% proof stress in the rolling direction is also reported as a means to
quantify the observed material anisotropy. The material exhibited a An identical testing procedure was followed for the 10mm thick plates.
0.2% proof stress in the transverse direction 21% higher than that in the Six coupons, 2 in each of the three directions considered, were extracted
longitudinal direction. The importance of incorporating material and tested in tension until fracture. Unexpectedly, all six coupons
anisotropy in numerical modelling is examined in the companion paper exhibited a distinct longitudinal crack parallel to the applied load prior
[28]. Since it is not always known which the rolling direction of a plate is, to the formation of necking, as shown in Fig. 4(a). The effect of this
the experimental results of the rolling direction (i.e. with the lowest σ0.2 unexpected crack formation was an earlier loss of stiffness and an
value) are adopted in the remainder of the paper as the representative apparent yield plateau of the stress-strain curve, as shown in Fig. 4(b),
material properties for comparisons with design predictions. which occurred simultaneously with the formation of the crack. The
longitudinal splitting of the coupons is believed to relate to the increased
plate thickness, which constrains the out of plane deformation and
hence the formation of necking [31]. In order to better understand the
reasons behind this unexpected fracture mode, additional experimental
studies are currently underway on thinner material coupons extracted
from the 10 mm thick plates. Since the recorded stress-strain response
is believed to have been affected by the specimen thickness, it cannot
be considered representative of the material behaviour of the 10 mm
thick ferritic plates. Therefore, in this paper only the experimental
results on the 5 mm thick specimens are reported.
Two smooth cylindrical coupons were machined from the A4-80 stainless
steel bolts and tested to fracture to determine the material behaviour of
the bolts. Key material properties are reported in Table 4. The
experimental set up for the bolt tensile tests and the obtained stress-
strain curves are shown in Fig. 5. A comprehensive experimental study
was conducted [30] to assess the effect of stress triaxiality on bolt
fracture and enable the explicit modelling of bolt fracture in the
companion paper [28].
(a)
Figure 5 The stress strain curves of the bolts and experimental set up.
Table 4 Material properties of the stainless steel bolts.
# E σ0.2 σ1.0 σu εu
(Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (Mpa) (%)
1 185000 410 600 727 0.19
(b)
Figure 4 a) Longitudinal cracks on coupons and b) Stress strain curves of the 10 mm 2 178821 396 592 726 0.21
thickness coupons.
The specimens were loaded using displacement control with a constant
2.3 Setup and instrumentation loading rate of 0.5 mm/min to ensure static response and negligible
strain rate effects. The loading process was terminated once a clear drop
All T-stubs were tested using a tensile testing machine in the Civil of the applied load was observed, which was triggered by either fracture
Engineering Laboratory of the University of Birmingham. The flange of
of the bolts or cracking of the T-stubs, as later discussed.
the T-stub specimens was bolted to a rigid T-stub which was fixed to the
machine grips, whilst the web of the T-stubs was connected to the The employed instrumentation consisted of two LVDTs monitoring the
testing machine via the configuration of plates schematically shown in vertical deflection of the T-stub specimen at the web location and at the
Fig. 6 for single and double bolt row specimens. Fig. 7 depicts the location of the bolt rows, and strain gauges affixed at specific locations
experimental setup during testing, where part of the employed of the flange of the specimens. The location of the strain gauges was
instrumentation is also depicted. The rigid T-stub, the support plates and selected so that the evolution of strains and hence the plastic
their bolt configurations were over-designed in order to remain elastic deformations of the flanges of the T-stubs could be monitored in order
and were hence reused for all tests. to deduce the formation of plastic hinges.
were adopted for the single and double bolt row T-stubs as depicted in
Fig. 8, with strain gauges along the length of the T-stub at different
locations intended to capture any variation in strains between the bolt
location and the specimen end. The failure mode of each specimen was
determined using the data obtained from the strain gauges as well as by
visual inspection. All deflections and strains were recorded at 2 second
intervals.
a) Single bolt row
(a) S1 and S2
(b) S3
b) Double bolt row
Figure 6 Experimental set up for a) single and b) double bolt row T-stubs
(c) D1-D4
(d) D5
Figure 7 The picture of the experimental set up and LVDTs
Figure 8 Strain gauge arrangements for the a) S1 and S2, b) S3, c) D1-D4 and d) D5 T-
stub specimens.
The adopted strain gauge arrangements for the single and double bolt
row specimens are shown in Fig. 8. Different strain gauge arrangements
4 Results and discussions attainment of the plastic resistance of the joint, where after a second
linear curve follows. The plastic resistance Fpl.exp is determined as the
4.1 Structural behaviour and failure modes intersection between the initial linear part of the curve and the tangent
to the second linear region. As expected, specimens with smaller m
distances display a higher stiffness and plastic resistance Fpl,exp, e.g. S3
The failure modes of the tested specimens are shown in Fig. 9. All
has a markedly higher stiffness and plastic resistance than S2 and S1.
specimens displayed significant plastic deformations of varying degree
depending on the employed bolt arrangement. Plastic deformations of
It is worth noting that all specimens except S3 display a third region in
the flanges were followed by significant plastic deformations of the bolts
their load-deflection curve following the second linear region, which is
in tension and bending. The tests were terminated when a marked drop
seen to be stiffer than the second linear region. This gain in stiffness
in load was noted, which was caused by the fracture initiation in either
relates to the change of the load carrying mechanism of the T-stubs at
the bolts or the T-stubs.
high deformations from primarily flexural to primarily tensile, due to the
S1 S2 S3 D1
D2 D3 (Failure mode) D3 (cracks on flange) D4
D5 (Failure mode) D5 (fracture of the flange)
Figure 9 Failure modes of the T-stub specimens. development of membrane action in the deformed flanges. Similar
observations have been made in [20] and [19] for moment resisting
The recorded load-deflection curves are depicted in Fig. 10, where the joints and T-stubs respectively. This change in response only occurs
design predictions of EN 1993-1-8 [1] for failure modes 1 and 2 are also when the flexural stiffness of the flanges is small (small thickness, large
depicted as horizontal red and blue lines respectively, with all safety m values) and the bolts are stiff and strong enough to accommodate
factors set to unity. All specimens display an initial linear response large inelastic deformations of the T-stubs and anchor the developing
followed by a drop in stiffness and a knee region corresponding to the membrane stresses, which cause a combination of tension and shear in
the bolt.
In Fig. 9, it can be clearly seen that specimens S1 and D1 ultimately fail
by bearing of the T-stub plate; hairline cracks were observed at the
interface with the bolts. The marked bearing deformations of the plate
ends lead to a gradual loss of stiffness of the third branch of the recorded
load-deflection curves depicted in Fig. 10. For specimens with smaller
end distances n, loss of stiffness is caused by extensive yielding and
elongation of the bolt holes and gradual loss of contact between the bolt
head and the plate. It is noted that specimen D5 ultimately failed by
fracture of the flange due to the strain concentration between the bolt
holes. The main reason for that is that the selected bolt distance was the
minimum allowed by [1], hence bearing resistance was compromised.
These observations are confirmed by inspecting the strain gauge (c) S3 specimen
readings. Fig. 11 shows typical load vs strain behaviours for specimens
S2 and D5. For each of the two specimens, two typical strain gauge
readings are reported, one close to the web of the T-stub and one at a
distance n from the end. As expected, for both specimens, the strain
gauge close to the web records tensile strains, which begin to increase
significantly at a load level close to the Fpl,exp, thus indicating excessive
yielding corresponding to the formation of a plastic hinge. At higher load
levels and higher deformations corresponding to the transition of the T-
stub response from primarily flexural to primarily tensile, the tensile
strains increase less abruptly.
(d) D1 Specimen
(a) S1 specimen
(e) D2 specimen
(b) S2 Specimen
(f) D3 Specimen
(g) D4 Specimen (a) Specimen S2
(h) D5 Specimen (b) Specimen D5
Figure 10 Load displacement curves of the T-stub specimens.
Figure 11 Typical load-strain curves for a) specimen S2 and b) specimen D5
Similarly, the strain gauges at a distance n from the free end record
compressive strains which begin to increase significantly as Fpl,exp is
( 8n 2ew )M f ,1,Rd
Type-1 F1,Rd (1)
approached and continue to increase until a load level corresponding to 2mn ew ( m n )
the beginning of the third distinct branch of the load deflection curves.
Thereafter, a reduction in the rate of increase of the recorded
2M f ,2 ,Rd n Ft ,Rd
Type-2 F2,Rd (2)
compressive strains occurs followed by a reduction of the compressive mn
strains themselves. These observations are consistent with the
development of membrane actions in the flanges of the T-stub. For
Type-3 F3,Rd Ft ,Rd (3)
example, with regard to specimen D5, strain gauge 1 and strain gauge 5
record almost equal but opposite in sign strains which begin to increase Table 5 summarises the experimentally obtained plastic resistance of the
more rapidly at a load level approximately 20 kN, which corresponds to tested specimens Fpl,exp, the ultimate resistance Fu,exp, the design
the beginning of the transition region between the initial linear and the prediction of [1] FEC3 according to Eq.(1) based on the tensile 0.2% proof
second linear branch of the load-deflection curve of specimen as shown stress, the ratio of the predicted over the experimental plastic resistance
in Fig. 10. The slope of the load strain curve remains constant until a load and the ultimate deformation at which failure occurred Δu,exp, which is a
level of approximately 50 kN, whereupon the slope decreases. This load measure of ductility .
levels correspond to the beginning of the third branch of the load-
deflection response. When the ultimate load is reached the compressive Table 5 Comparison of test results with predicted ultimate resistances according to EN-
1993-1-8.
strains are clearly seen to decrease, presumably due to the development
of membrane action throughout the T-stub flanges. Fu,Exp. Fpl, Exp. FEC3
# FEC3/ Fpl,Exp. Δu,exp
(KN) (KN) (KN)
4.2 Evaluation of EN 1993-1-8 design provisions S1 102.1 16.8 12.4 0.74 54
S2 111.8 22.3 18.2 0.82 41
Three possible failure modes are identified in EN 1993-1-8 [1] for T-stubs
in tension and their respective resistances are given by Eqs. (1)-(3), S3 114.3 47 39.1 0.83 22.5
where all symbols are defined in [1]. All T-stubs failed in mode 1 as D1 207.5 31 31.4 1.01 55.8
predicted by Eq. (1) and verified both by visual inspection and by the D2 229.9 46 43.6 0.95 43.5
strain gauge readings which indicated large inelastic tensile and
D3 222.1 37.5 31.4 0.84 59.7
compressive strains consistent with the development of plastic hinges.
D4 220.8 40 43.6 1.09 42.8
D5 150.5 29 31.4 1.08 43
Average 0.92
St. dev. 0.13
On average the design predictions of EN1993-1-8 [1] seem to provide a specimens exhibited significant overstrength. The ratio of the ultimate
good estimation of the experimentally obtained plastic resistance, thus over the plastic resistance Fu,exp/Fpl,exp ranged from 2.4 to 6.7 thus
verifying the applicability of EN 1993-1-8 [1] to ferritic stainless steel T- indicating significant reserve capacity inherent in ferritic stainless steel
stubs. The largest discrepancy occurs for specimen S1, the bolt distance connections failing in mode 1. Since large deformations are required to
m of which is the largest among all tested specimens. The ultimate mobilise membrane actions, it is not practical to consider this over
resistance of the specimens Fu,exp remains unaffected by the change of strength in conventional design, but it may be beneficial to mitigate
the adopted m and n values, whilst the distance between the bolts b2 progressive collapse in an extreme event and can hence enhance
seems to be an influential parameter for both the ultimate resistance robustness.
and ductility.
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