Corrosion effect on structural behaviour of bolted steel connections under axial tension loads

Abstract

Corrosion is one of the most important problems and is an inevitable event in metal structures exposed to environmental effects. Corrosion deterioration usually forms in steel and steel-concrete composite bridges and marine structures. Bolted connections in steel structures are the preferred connection types because of their ease of assembly and high strength. In this study, corrosion damages were created in steel plates with bolted connections and the axial load strength, ductility and behaviour of the steel members were investigated. Axial tensile tests have been carried out on steel plates with bolted connections exposed to corrosion at different rates (10% and 20% by mass). According to the axial tensile tests, decreases in average yield strength and average yield strain values were determined as 4% and 10% for 10% corroded specimens, and were determined as 16% and 27% for 20% corroded specimens having 4 mm thick plates, respectively. Similarly, for specimens having a thickness of 6 mm plate, average yield strength and average yield strain values decreased 3% and 5% for 10% corroded specimens, and 13% and 14% for 20% corroded specimens, respectively. Also, it was found that the ultimate strengths and average rupture strains decreased almost proportionally to the amount of corrosion. In addition, finite element analysis was performed in ANSYS program for bolted connections examined experimentally. In terms of ultimate tensile strength, the results were obtained with an average error of 4% in non-corroded 4 mm specimens and 6% in 10% and 20% corroded 4 mm specimens. For 6 mm plate thickness, these values of non-corroded, 10% and 20% corroded specimens were obtained as 9%, 5% and 3%, respectively.