• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2010

The current trends in steel construction involve the use of tapered sections to minimize the use of excess materials to the extent possible, by choosing cross-sections that are as economical as possible abandoning the classical approach of using prismatic members. In addition, snug-tightened connections, especially the end-plate type, have the advantage of fetching less construction costs and shorter assembly times as opposed to fully tightened joints. Although they have many merits, however, snug-tightened bolted end plates are extremely complex in their structural behavior. In this study, an experimental investigation of the snug-tightened flush end-plate connections of tapered beams were conducted. The primary test parameters were the torque for the clamping bolt, the loading pattern, the bolt type and the connection failure type. Using initial stiffness and load-carrying capacity as proposed by Silva et al. and AISC (2003), the moment-rotation curve of a linearly tapered member with a snug-tightened flush end-plate connection was predicted. Moreover, numerical and experimental data for moment-rotation curves were compared.