Bearing performance of high-strength bolted corrugated steel longitudinal seams

Abstract

The assembly-type corrugated pipes have been widely used in underground pipeline construction owing to their rapid construction speed and strong adaptability to deformation. However, research with respect to the bearing performance and design methods of their longitudinal seams is lacking. In this study, axial compression tests were conducted on a single high-strength bolted seam of longitudinal seams of galvanised middle-wave corrugated steel plate structures to investigate the damage characteristics and bearing performance of the seams in different failure modes. A finite element analysis was also conducted to verify the test results and perform parametric analysis. The results showed that, to realise the maximum seam strength, the plate thickness should be matched to the bolt diameter. The torque coefficient hardly affects the ultimate bearing performance of the longitudinal seam, and the ultimate bearing capacity of the plate bearing failure seam is significantly influenced by the slip resistance coefficient. With the increase in waveform, the bearing capacity of seams increased by approximately 8.8% and 17.1% for the bearing failure of the plate, while it increased only slightly for bolt shear failure mode. Finally, several codes of bearing capacity calculation methods were compared with the test and simulation results. The revised Eurocode BS EN 1993-1-8:2005 accurately reflects the true bearing performance of corrugated steel plates with high-strength bolted connections. This study provides relevant reference data and design recommendations for seams that are easily overlooked in the design of assembly-type corrugated pipe projects.