Effect of Bolt Slippage on the Static Response of Lattice Structure

Abstract

Bolted connection technology has been widely used in steel structure engineering. Conventional structural analysis softwares solve related problems with the assumption of regarding the bolted connection as a rigid joint connection. Thus the calculated internal forces of the structure members are bigger than those of real measurements, and the calculated displacement are smaller than the experimental ones under the same load. One of the main reasons is the bolt slippage. In the lattice structure, there are a large number of bolted connections with thin connection members and small-diameter bolts, however, their clamping forces are relatively small. These characteristics have significant effects on the static response of the lattice structure. In this paper, in comparison with the test results, the deformation-load curves of the bolt connections are introduced into the finite element simulation, revealing the effect of bolt slippage on the static response of lattice structure. The simulation and test results show that the bolt slippage causes the redistribution of the member internal forces of the lattice structure and increases the displacement of the lattice structure,thus the simulation results with bolt slippage are more close to the real values. The proposed algorithm and simulation results would provid good reference for further engineering applications.