Flexural strength of end-plate connection with several different bolt arrangements

Abstract An end-plate connection is one of the common connections implemented in beam-column joints. This connection used a combination of bolts and welds as the connectors, so it is also specified as a semi-rigid connection. In general, the end-plate connection is applied to withstand the bending moment and to enhance its bending capacity, the connection area of the end-plate is generally enlarged. So far, the studies carried out to obtain the contribution of bolt arrangements to flexural strength are very limited, so maximum flexural capacity has not yet been optimally achieved. This research aims to examine the flexural strength of end-plate connections varied by bolt arrangements and bolt connection areas. The study was first conducted by analytically modeling the end-plate connection in SAP 2000, where the internal forces, i.e., shear force and moment were obtained from this numerical study. The theoretical studies were also carried out by considering internal troops to discover the influence of the bolt configuration on the end-plate connection to the flexural strength. The height of the area connection was also assorted, i.e., 100 mm, 200 mm, and 300 mm. The study revealed that enlarging area connections and increasing the number of bolts, reduce the tensile and shear stress at the maximum rate of 97.6 and 50 %, respectively. However, it can increase the flexural strength up to the rate 15 times from the minimum flexural strength. This result revealed that enlarging the connection area and adding the number of bolts can be suggested to enhance the flexural capacity when the end plate connection deals with a strong bending moment.