CONNECTION DESIGN

ACCORDING TO EUROCODE
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
TYPES OF CONNECTION
BOLTED CONNECTION
WELDED CONNECTION
EQUIVALENT T-STUB IN TENSION
EQUIVALENT T-STUB IN COMPRESSION
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
DESIGN MOMENT RESISTANCE OF BEAM TO COLUMN JOINTS AND SPLICES
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF COLUMN BASES WITH BASE PLATE
REFERENCE
INTRODUCTION

Location at which two or more elements meet- CONNECTION

Connections between different members of a steel framework not only facilitate the flow of forces
and moments from one member to another but also allow the transfer of forces up to the
foundation level.
Avoid connection failure before member failure due to following reasons
o A connection failure may lead to a catastrophic failure of the whole structure
o A connection failure is not as ductile as that of a steel member failure
o For achieving an economical design, it is important that connectors develop full or little extra
strength of the members it is joining.
Connection failure may be avoided by adopting a higher safety factor for the joints than the
members
In a typical braced multi-storey frame, the connections may account for less than 5% of the frame
weight, and 30% or more of the total cost. Efficient connections will therefore have the lowest
detailing, fabrication and erection labour content-they will not necessarily be the lightest.
CONNECTION
FAILURE
 TYPES OF CONNECTION
CONNECTION TYPES

Based on

FASTENING CONNECTION JOINT FABRICATION CONNECTION TYPE OF FORCE

METHOD: RIGIDITY: RESISTANCE: LOCATION: GEOMETRY: TRANSFERRED
Rivets, bolts, Simple, rigid, Bearing, Shop or field Single plate, ACROSS THE
welding semi rigid friction connections double web STRUCTURAL
connections angle, end CONNECTION:
plates etc. Shear
connection,
moment
connection etc.
CONNECTION RIGIDITY
Simple Rigid connection- Semi-rigid
connection- develops full connection- it may
No moment moment capacity of not have sufficient
transfer is connecting members rigidity to hold the
assumed and retain the original angles
between the original angle between the
connected parts, between the members and
hence are members under any develop less than the
assumed as joint rotation i.e. full moment
hinged(pinned). rotational movement capacity. In reality, all
of the joint will be the connections will
very small. be semi rigid.

BACK TO
CLASSIFICATION
JOINT RESISTANCE
Bearing connection- In these type, plates are in firm
contact but may slip under loading until the hole
surface bears against the bolt. The load transmitted
from plate to bolt is therefore by bearing and the bolt
is in shear.

Friction connection- These bolts should be tightened

to their proof loads* and require hardened washers
to distribute the load under the bolt heads. The
washers are usually tapered when used on rolled
steel sections. The tension in the bolt ensures that no
slip takes place under working conditions and so the
load transmission from plate to the bolt is through
friction and not by bearing. However, under ultimate
load, the friction may be overcome leading to a slip
and so bearing will govern the design.
Proof load is defined as the maximum tensile force that can be applied to a bolt that will BACK TO
not result in plastic deformation. Proof load is typically between 85-95% of the yield CLASSIFICATION
strength.
CONNECTION GEOMETRY

BACK TO
CLASSIFICATION
TYPE OF FORCE TRANSFERRED ACROSS THE STRUCTURAL CONNECTION

BACK TO
CLASSIFICATION
FASTENING METHOD
Bolted Welded
connection- it connection- it is a
consist of the method of
fasteners that connecting two
capture and join pieces of metal by
other parts and heating to a
are secured with plastic or fluid
the mating of state, so that
screw heads. fusion occurs.

BACK TO
CLASSIFICATION
BOLTED CONNECTION

Bolted connection types

Shear connection Tension connection

Slip-resistant at Slip-resistant at ultimate

Bearing type Non-preloaded Preloaded
serviceability limit state state
Bearing failure Shear failure
For preloaded bolts, the design preload, Fp,Cd ,
to be used in design calculations should be
taken as:
The design slip resistance of a preloaded class 8.8 or 10.9 bolt should be taken as:

Where,
Ks as per table 3.6
n is number of friction surfaces
m is slip factor Countersunk bolt
Countersunk bolt

Preloaded
bolts
Combined tension and shear

If a slip-resistant connection is subjected to an applied tensile force, Ft,Ed or Ft,Ed,serv, in addition to the
shear force, Fv,Ed or Fv,Ed,serv, tending to produce slip, the design slip resistance per bolt should be taken
as follows:
Design for block tearing
Block tearing consists of failure in shear at the row of bolts along the shear face of the hole group accompanied
by tensile rupture along the line of bolt holes on the tension face of the bolt group.

For a symmetric bolt group subject to concentric loading the

design block tearing resistance, Veff,1,Rd is
given by:.

where
Ant is net area subjected to tension
Anv is net area subjected to shear

For a bolt group subject to eccentric loading the design block shear
tearing resistance Veff,2,Rd is given by:
FASTENING METHOD
WELDED CONNECTION
Advantages:
Welded connections eliminate the need for making holes in the member, except for a few
employed for erection purposes. This has a greater influence in the case of tension members, since
the calculation of net section is eliminated.
Welding offers airtight and watertight jointing of plates and hence is employed in the construction
of water/oil storage tanks, ships, etc.
Welded joints are economical, since they enable direct transfer of stresses between the members.
Moreover, the splice plates and bolt material are eliminated. The required size of gusset plate is
also smaller, because of reduced connection length.
Welded connections are usually aesthetic in appearance and appear less cluttered in contrast to
bolted connections.
Welding offers more freedom to the designer in choosing sections.
Welding is practicable even for complicated shapes of joints.
WELDED CONNECTION
Disadvantages:
Welding requires highly skilled human resources.
The inspection of welded joints is difficult and expensive, whereas inspection of bolted joints is
simple.
Costly equipment is necessary to make welded connections.
Welded connections are prone to cracking under fatigue loading.
The possibility of brittle fracture is more in the case of welded joints than in bolted connections.
Welding at the site may not be feasible due to lack of power supply.
 Types of weld

Groove weld Fillet weld Slot weld Plug weld

Note:
Fillet welds are used extensively (about 80%); groove weld (about 15%); slot and plug weld (less than 5%).
Fillet welds are suitable for lap and T-joints and groove welds are suitable for butt, corner and edge joints.
 DESIGN RESISTANCE OF FILLET WELD
Length of the weld: The effective length of a fillet weld should be taken as the length over which the
fillet is full-size. This maybe taken as the overall length of the weld reduced by twice the effective throat
thickness a. A fillet weld with an effective length less than 30 mm or less than 6 times its throat
thickness, whichever is larger, should not be designed to carry load.
Effective throat thickness: The effective throat thickness, a, of a fillet weld should be taken as the height
of the largest triangle (with equal or unequal legs) that can be inscribed within the fusion faces and the
weld surface, measured perpendicular to the outer side of this triangle. The effective throat thickness of
a fillet weld should not be less than 3 mm. In determining the design resistance of a deep penetration
fillet weld, account may be taken of its additional throat thickness.
SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR DESIGN RESISTANCE OF FILLET WELD

The resultant of all the forces per unit length transmitted by the weld satisfy the following criterion:

Where,
Fw,Ed is design value of weld force per unit length
Fw,Rd is design weld resistance per unit length
fvw.d is design shear strength of weld
fu is nominal ultimate tensile strength of weaker part joined
EQUIVALENT T-STUB IN TENSION
In bolted connections an equivalent T-stub in tension may be used to model the design resistance of
the following basic components:
column flange in bending;
end-plate in bending;
flange cleat in bending;
base plate in bending under tension.
The total effective length leff of an equivalent T-stub, should be such that the design resistance of its
flange is equivalent to that of the basic joint component that it represents. The effective length of an
equivalent T-stub is a notional length and does not necessarily correspond to the physical length of the
basic joint component that it represents.
In cases where prying forces may develop, the design tension resistance of a T-stub flange FT,Rd should be
taken as the smallest value for the three possible failure modes 1, 2 and 3.
In cases where prying forces may not develop, the design tension resistance of a T-stub flange FT,Rd should
be taken as the smallest value for the two possible failure modes 1-2 and 3.

NOTE: The prying forces in bolts under traction result from any eccentricity between one of the loaded
members and a bolt connecting it to another member; as the joined members try to separate, the members'
area away from the loaded section react against each other producing a prying force (as in a crowbar) which
must be transferred by the bolt in addition to the original load
EQUIVALENT T-STUB IN COMPRESSION
In steel- to-concrete joints, the flange of an equivalent T-stub in compression may be used to model the
design resistances for the combination of the following basic components:
the steel base plate in bending under the bearing pressure on the foundation,
the concrete and/or grout joint material in bearing.
The total length leff and the total width beff of an equivalent T-stub should be such that the design
compression resistance of the T-stub is equivalent to that of the basic joint component it represents. The
effective length and the effective width of an equivalent T-stub are notional lengths and may be smaller
than or equal to the physical dimensions of the basic joint component it represents.
The design compression resistance of a T-stub flange FC,Rd should be determined as follows

Where,
beff is the effective width of the T-stub flange
leff is the effective length of the T-stub flange
fjd is the design bearing strength of the joint
 The forces transferred through a T-stub should be assumed to spread uniformly as shown in figure.
The pressure on the resulting bearing area should not exceed the design bearing strength fj and the
additional bearing width, c, should not exceed:
where:
t is the thickness of the T-stub flange;
fy is the yield strength of the T-stub flange.

Where the projection of the physical length of the basic joint component represented by the T-stub is less
than c, the effective area should be taken as indicated in Figure 6.4(a)
Where the projection of the physical length of the basic joint component represented by the T-stub
exceeds c on any side, the part of the additional projection beyond the width c should be neglected,
see Figure 6.4(b).
 The design bearing strength of the joint fjd should be determined from:
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Column web panel in shear
The design method are valid provided the column web slenderness satisfies the condition:

e= 
For single-sided joint or for double-sided joint in which the beam depths are similar,
the design shear resistance Vwp,Rd of an unstiffened column panel, subject to design
shear force should be obtained using:

where, Avc is shear area of the column

The design shear resistance may be increased by the use of stiffeners or supplementary web plates.
Where a column web is reinforced by adding a supplementary web plate, the shear area Avc may be
increased by bstwc. If a further supplementary web plate is added on the other side of the web, no
further increase of the shear area should be made.
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Column web in transverse compression
The design resistance of an unstiffened column web subject to transverse compression
should be determined from:

Where,
w is a reduction factor to allow for the possible effects of interaction with shear in the
column web panel.
beff,c,wc is effective width of column web in compression
For welded connection,

For bolted end-plate connection,

sp is the length obtained by dispersion at 45* through the end-plate(at least tp and, provided that
the length of end-plate below the flange is sufficient, up to 2tp)
 DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Column web in transverse tension
The design resistance of an unstiffened column web subject to transverse tension should
be determined from:

Where,
w is a reduction factor to allow for the interaction with shear in the column web panel.
For welded connection,

For bolted connection, the effective width beff,t,wc of column web in tension should be taken as equal
to the effective length of equivalent T-stub representing the column flange
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
End-plate in bending
The design resistance and failure mode of an end-plate in bending, together with the
associated bolts in tension, should be taken as similar to those of an equivalent T-stub
flange
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Flange cleat in bending
The design resistance and failure mode of a bolted angle flange cleat in bending, together
with the associated bolts in tension, should be taken as similar to those of an equivalent
T-stub flange
Note:
The number of bolt-rows
connecting the cleat to the
column flange is limited to one
The number of bolt-rows
connecting the cleat to the
beam flange is not limited
The length a of the cleat may
be different from both the
width of the beam flange and
the width of the column flange
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Beam flange and web in compression
The design compression resistance of the combined beam flange and web is given by the
following expression:

Where,
h is the depth of connected beam
Mc,Rd is the design moment resistance of the beam cross-section, reduced if necessary to
allow for shear. For a haunched beam Mc,Rd may be calculated neglecting the
intermediate flange.
tfb is the flange thickness of the connected beam.
If the height of the beam including the haunch exceeds 600 mm the contribution of the beam web to the
design compression resistance should be limited to 20%.
If a beam is reinforced with haunches they should be arranged such that:
The steel grade of the haunch should be match that of the member
The flange size and the web thickness of the haunch should not be less than that of the member
The angle of the haunch flange to the flange of the member should not be greater than 45
The length of stiff bearing s should be taken as equal to the thickness of the haunch flange parallel
to the beam.
If a beam is reinforced with haunches, the design resistance of beam web in compression should be
determined according to column web in transverse compression.
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF BASIC COMPONENTS
Beam web in tension
In a bolted end-plate connection, the design tension resistance of the beam web should
be obtained from:

The effective width beff,t,wb of the beam web in tension should be taken as equal to the
effective length of the equivalent T-stub representing the end-plate in bending, obtained
from clause for end plate for bending for an individual bolt-row or a bolt-group.
 DESIGN MOMENT RESISTANCE OF BEAM TO COLUMN JOINTS AND SPLICES
The applied design moment Mj,Ed shall satisfy:

The methods given above for determining the design moment resistance of a joint Mj,Rd do not take account of
any co-existing axial force NEd in the connected member. They should not be used if the axial force in the
connected member exceeds 5% of the design plastic resistance Npl,Rd of its cross-section.
If the axial force NEd in the connected beam exceeds 5% of the design resistance, Npl,Rd , the following
conservative method may be used:

Where,
Mj,Rd is the design moment resistance of the joint, assuming no axial force
Nj,Rd is the axial design resistance of the joint, assuming no applied moment
 The design moment resistance of a welded joint should be determined as per below figure

The design moment resistance of a bolted joint with angle flange cleats should be determined
as per below figure

Lever arm=Distance from the

centre of compression to the
bolt-row in tension
 The design moment resistance of a bolted joint with a flush end-plate that has only one bolt-row in
tension (or in which only one bolt-row in tension is considered) should be determined as per below figure

Lever arm=Distance from the

centre of compression to the
bolt-row in tension

As a conservative simplification, the design moment resistance of an extended end-plate joint with only
two rows of bolts in tension may be approximated as per below figure, provided that the total design
resistance FRd does not exceed F3,8t,Rd , where Ft,Rd is given in Table 6.2. In this case the whole tension
region of the end-plate may be treated as a single basic component.

Lever arm=Conservatively z may be taken as

the distance from the centre of compression
to a point midway between these two
bolt-rows
 The centre of compression should be taken as the centre of the stress block of the compression forces.
A splice in a member or part subject to tension shall be designed to transmit all the moments and forces
to which the member or part is subjected at that point.
Splices shall be designed to hold the connected members in place. Friction forces between contact
surfaces may not be relied upon to hold connected members in place in a bearing splice.
Wherever practicable the members should be arranged so that the centroidal axis of any splice material
coincides with the centroidal axis of the member. If eccentricity is present then the resulting forces
should be taken into account.
Where the members are not prepared for full contact in bearing, splice material should be provided to
transmit the internal forces and moments in the member at the spliced section, including the moments
due to applied eccentricity, initial imperfections and second-order deformations. The internal forces and
moments should be taken as not less than a moment equal to 25% of the moment capacity of the
weaker section about both axes and a shear force equal to 2.5% of the normal force capacity of the
weaker section in the directions of both axes.
 Where the members are prepared for full contact in bearing, splice material should be provided to
transmit 25% of the maximum compressive force in the column.
Splices in flexural members should comply with the following:

Compression flanges should be treated as compression members

Tension flanges should be treated as tension members

Parts subjected to shear should be designed to transmit the following effects acting together:
o the shear force at the splice
o the moment resulting from the eccentricity, if any, of the centroids of the groups of fasteners on
each side of the splice
o the proportion of moment, deformation or rotations carried by the web or part, irrespective of
any shedding of stresses into adjoining parts assumed in the design of the member or part.
DESIGN RESISTANCE OF COLUMN BASES WITH BASE PLATES
Column bases should be of sufficient size, stiffness and strength to
transmit the axial forces, bending moments and shear forces in
columns to their foundations or other supports without exceeding the
load carrying capacity of these supports.
The design bearing strength between the base plate and its support
may be determined on the basis of a uniform distribution of
compressive force over the bearing area. For concrete foundations the
bearing strength should not exceed the design bearing strength, fjd
 For a column base subject to combined axial force and bending the forces between the base plate and its
support can take one of the following distribution depending on the relative magnitude of the applied
axial force and bending moment:
o In the case of a dominant compressive axial force, full compression may develop under both column
flanges as shown in below figure

o In the case of a dominant tensile force, full tension may develop under both flanges as shown in figure
below.
o In the case of a dominant bending moment compression may develop under one column flange
and tension under the other as shown in figure below.

o One of the following methods should be used to resist the shear force between the base plate and its
support:

Frictional design resistance at the joint between the base plate and its support.

The design shear resistance of the anchor bolts.

The design shear resistance of the surrounding part of the foundation.

If anchor bolts are used to resist the shear forces between the base plate and its support, rupture of the
concrete in bearing should also be checked, according to EN 1992.
Where the above methods are inadequate special elements such as blocks or bar shear connectors
should be used to transfer the shear forces between the base plate and its support.
Column bases only subjected to axial forces
The design resistance, Nj,Rd ,of a symmetric column base
plate subject to an axial compressive force applied
concentrically may be determined by adding together the
individual design resistance FC,Rd of the three T-stubs
shown in figure (see right) (Two T-stubs under the column
flanges and one T-stub under the column web.) The three
T-stubs should not be overlapping. The design resistance
of each of these T-stubs should be calculated using the
method given in 6.2.5. (equivalent T-stub in compression)

Column bases subjected to axial forces and bending moments

The design moment resistance Mj,Rd of a column base subject to combined axial force and moment
should be determined using the method given in table below where the contribution of the concrete
portion just under the column web (T-stub 2 of above figure) to the compressive capacity is omitted.
The following parameters are used in this method:
FT,l,Rd is the design tension resistance of the left hand side of the joint.
FT,r,Rd is the design tension resistance of the right hand side of the joint.
FC,l,Rd is the design compressive resistance of the left hand side of the joint.
FC,r,Rd is the design compressive resistance of the right hand side of the joint.
REFERENCE

EN 1993-1-8: Design of joints

Simple joints to Eurocode 3
NPTEL
Design of steel structures by N. Subramanian
http://www.steel-insdag.org/TeachingMaterial/chapter33.pdf (for friction and bearing bolt)
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