• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2018

In this study, we conducted a shake table test to verify the seismic performance of the paneling system with steel truss composed of bolt connections. The control group was set to the traditional paneling system with steel truss connected by spot welding method. Test results showed that the bolted connection type paneling system has excellent deformation capacity without cracking or brittle fracture of the steel truss connection parts compared to the welding type paneling system. Furthermore, in the bolted connection type, slight damage occurred at the time of occurrence of the same story drift angle as compared with the existing method, it is considered that it has excellent seismic performance. In compliance with the performance-based design recommended for the current code (ASCE 41-13) on non-structural components, it is judged that in the case of the bolted connection type paneling system, it can be applied to all risk category structures without restriction. However, in the case of traditional paneling system with spot welding method, it is considered that it can be applied limitedly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2015

Well-designed bolted connections can exhibit excellent ductile behavior through bearing mechanism until the occurrence of bolt shear rupture. The ultimate strength analysis of eccentric bolted connections is an economical and mechanistic approach which uses such ductility. However, the bolt load-deformation relationship, which forms basis of the current practice, is based on very limited combinations of bolt and steel materials. The primary objective of this study was to establish the general bolt force-deformation relationship based on systematic single-bolt bearing connection tests. The test results showed that the projected area of the bolt hole and the strength and thickness of the plate to be connected are the main factors affecting the force-deformation relationship. The results of this study can be used for the instantaneous center of rotation method (ICRM) to achieve more accurate analysis and economical design of a variety of group-bolted connections subjected to eccentric shear.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.341-352
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• 2017

Well designed group bolted connections can exhibit excellent ductile behavior through the bearing mechanism until the occurrence of shear rupture in the bolt or in the connecting plate. This excellent ductility can be utilized in favor of economical connection design. In this study, comprehensive tests on single-bolt bearing connections were conducted and analyzed considering bearing boundary conditions. The primary objective was to propose a generalized bearing strength and load-deformation relationship that can be used for designing group-bolted connections. To this end, new bearing strength formula, deformation limits as well as new load-deformation relationship were first proposed. Especially the proposed load-deformation relationship can reflect the stiffness, strength, and geometrical boundary conditions of the joint. The proposed formula and relationship are validated based on test results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.423-432
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• 2020

In this paper, a novel but practical approach named series/parallel multi-sensing technique was proposed to evaluate the bolt looseness in a bolt group. The smart washers (SWs), which were fabricated by embedding a Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) transducer into two flat metal rings, were installed to the bolts group. By series connection of SWs, the impedance signals of different bolts can be obtained through only one sweep. Therefore, once the loosening occurred, the shift of different peak frequencies can be used to locate which bolt has loosened. The proposed multi input single output (MISO) damage detection scheme is very suitable for the structural health monitoring (SHM) of joint with a large number of bolts connection. Another notable contribution of this paper is the proposal of 3-dB bandwidth root mean square deviation (3 dB-RMSD) which can quantitatively evaluate the severity of bolt looseness. Compared with the traditional naked-eye observation method, the equivalent circuit based 3-dB bandwidth can accurately define the calculation range of RMSD. An experiment with three bolted connection specimens that installed the SWs was carried out to validate our proposed approach. Experimental result shows that the proposed 3 dB-RMSD based multi-sensing technique can not only identify the loosened bolt but also monitor the severity of bolt looseness.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.293-301
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• 2019

Bolted joints are commonly used in civil infrastructure and mechanical assembly structures. Monitoring and identifying the connection status of bolts is the frontier problem of structural research. The existing research is mainly on the looseness of a single bolt. This article presents a study of assessing the loosening/tightening health state and identifying the loose bolt by using ultrasonic guided wave in a bolt group joint. A bolt-tightening index was proposed for evaluating the looseness of a bolt connection based on correlation coefficient. The tightening/loosening state of the bolt was simulated by changing the bolt torque. More than 180 different measurement tests for total of six bolts were conducted. The results showed that with the bolt torque increases, value of the proposed bolt-tightening index increases. The proposed bolt-tightening index trend was very well reproduced by an analytical expression using a function of the torque applied with an overall percentage error lower than 5%. The developed damage index based on the proposed bolt-tightening index can also be applied to locate the loosest bolt in a bolt group joint. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a bolt group joint experiment with different positions of bolt looseness was performed. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective to detect and locate bolt looseness and has a good prospect of finding applications in real-time structural monitoring.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.563-580
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• 2010

Composite beams using bolts to attach steel plates to the side faces of existing reinforced concrete (RC) coupling beams can enhance both their strength and deformability. The behavior of those composite beams differs substantially from the behavior of typical composite beams made up of steel beams and concrete slabs. The former are subjected to longitudinal, vertical and rotational slips, while the latter only involve longitudinal slip. In this study, a mixed analysis method was adopted to develop the fundamental equations for accurate prediction of the load-carrying capacity of steel plate strengthened RC coupling beams. Then, a rigid plastic analysis technique was used to cope with the full composite effect of the bolt group connections. Two theoretical models for the determination of the strength of medium-length plate strengthened coupling beams based on mixed analysis and rigid plastic methods are presented. The strength of the strengthened coupling beams is derived. The vertical and longitudinal slips of the steel plates and the shear strength of the anchor-bolt connection group is considered. The theoretical models are validated by the available experimental results presented in a companion paper. The strength of the specimens predicted from the mixed analysis model is found to be in good agreement with that from the experimental results.