The objective of the investigation is to study the strength of bolted ring-type connections used for solid-round leg members of all-welded steel towers subjected to tensile loads and to determine whether the current practice of ignoring the eccentricity of the connection can be justified or not. The load carrying capacity and maximum gap were determined experimentally and by finite element analysis. A total of eighteen specimens divided into three groups were tested. Group 1 consisted of six specimens of 25.4 mm (1.0 in.) leg size and 22.2 mm (7/8 in.) bolt size with no girls, group 2 consisted of six specimens of 38.1 mm (1.5 in.) leg size and 22.2 mm (7/8 in.) bolt size with girts, while group 3 consisted of six specimens of 50.8 mm (2.0 in.) leg size and 31.8 mm (1-1/4 in.) bolt size with girts. All the specimens were subjected to tension loading. The investigation focused on: load-gap relationship under tension loading and the tensile capacity of the connections. In the finite element analysis, three-dimensional finite element models were developed with the ABAQUS package in order to simulate the strength and gap behavior of the bolted ring connections. It was found that the results from the finite element models agreed closely with the experimental values and that the strength of the connection increased with increase in leg size (for the same size bolt). The results from both the finite element analysis and the experiments show that the failure loads are less than the axial load capacities according to Canadian Standard for all groups. Comparing experimental failure loads to the axial load capacities according to AISC-LRFD, they are less for Groups 1 and 3 and are almost the same for Group 2.Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses u26 Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2002 .S54. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-03, page: 1001. Adviser: K. S. Madugula. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2003.
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