Numerical modelling of stainless steel preloaded bolted connections

The use of stainless steel in construction has become more popular in recent years. It is used for a wide range of structural applications in aggressive environments where reliable performance over long periods with little maintenance is required. Although structural design standards are available for stainless steel, currently there are no rules covering the design of preloaded slip-resistant bolted connections because of the lack of knowledge about their long-term viscoplastic behaviour. Viscoplastic creep and stress relaxation in the preloaded bolt assemblies will lead to a certain loss of clamping force and may cause the failure of the connection if not accounted for. This paper presents the development of material models and finite element models for bolt assemblies based on an extensive experimental study of creep, relaxation and tension effects on austenitic, ferritic, duplex and lean duplex steel plates and bars for different loading rates. These models were verified against slip tests with stainless steel bolt assemblies according to EN 1090-2 and then used in a parametric study to extend the scope of the connections investigated. Both experimental programmes were carried out in the European RFCS research project SIROCO (Execution and reliability of slip-resistant connections for steel structures using Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel) as well as finite element calculations.