Block Shear of Bolted Connections-Reliability Analysis and Design Recommendations

In this paper, the existing data from previous research projects was analyzed to determine the reliability of the 2022 AISC Specification block shear equations. Additionally, the 1989 AISC Specification provisions and the design equations proposed by Driver et al. (2006), Kamtekar (2012), and Teh and Deierlein (2017) were analyzed. The analysis was limited to normal-strength steels. The data set included a total of 279 experimental tests from 25 research projects. For the data set with only U-shaped block shear patterns, the reliability analysis showed that both the 2022 AISC Specification and the 1989 AISC Specification block shear provisions are conservative.Based on the results, revisions to the AISC Specification were proposed. The proposed design method combines attributes from the available design methods to develop a general design method that is applicable to several common connection types. A secondary intention is to enhance clarity and transparency, where the variables affecting the strength are included explicitly in the equations.