Author(s)

ABDULLAH AL-MAISARI, NEWTON AVILA DOS SANTOS, MIKI SALLI, ZHONGCHENG MA

Abstract

An innovative demountable solution for the steel roof trusses with rectangular hollow sections (RHS) was developed to promote the reuse of steel roof trusses. Self-drilling screws were used for the RHS truss joints to replace the traditional welded solution. The drillability of screwed connections for S355 and S500 steel plates was tested in terms of drilling time and failed attempts. The effects of the size of pilot holes and the type of screws were studied. Lap-shear behaviour and strength with varying gap distances between the plates were also studied experimentally. Finally, three T-joint tests in tension were executed to investigate the load-carrying capacity of the joints. Digital image correlation technique was used to record the deformation of joint area. Finite element analyses were firstly performed for the lap-shear tests using simplified modelling methods. Then, the simplified modelling method of the screwed connection was validated by the T-joint tests.

Keywords

demountable joint, RHS, self-drilling screws, drillability, lap-shear behaviour, T-joint