Ultimate Behavior of Single Shear Bolted Connections with Thin-Walled Aluminum Alloys(6061-T6)
The purpose of this study is to investigate the ultimate behaviors of aluminum alloy bolted connections assembled with four bolts. Specimens for single shear bolted connections were tested and finite element analysis based on this test results was conducted. The validity of finite element(FE) analysis for predicting the structural behaviors such as ultimate strength, fracture mode and curling(out-of-plane deformation) occurrence was verified through the comparisons between test results and FE analysis results. It is known that the curling resulted in sudden strength drop. Moreover, FE models with free edge and restrained out-of-plane deformation for curled specimens are analyzed additionally, therefore, the influence of curling on the ultimate strength; strength reduction ratio is estimated.