VELAMMAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, MADURAI

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CE8601 – DESIGN OF STEEL STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS
UNIT 2 – CONNECTIONS IN STEEL STRUCTURES

1. List the advantages and disadvantages of welded joints.

Advantages:
 As no hole is required for welding, hence no reduction of area. So structural
members are more effective in taking the load.
 Welded joints are more economical as less labor and less material is required.
 The efficiency of welded joint is more than that of the riveted joint.
Disadvantages:
 Welded joints are more brittle and therefore their fatigue strength is less than the
members joined.
 Due to uneven heating & cooling of the members during the welding, the
members may distort resulting in additional stresses.
 Skilled labor and electricity are required for welding.
2. What is meant by throat thickness?
It is the perpendicular distance from the root to the hypotenuse of the largest isosceles
right-angled triangle that can be inscribed within the weld cross-section.
Throat thickness = 0.7 x size of the weld
3. Define gauge distance and edge distance in bolted joints.
Gauge Distance (g): It is the distance between the two consecutive bolts of adjacent
rows, and is measured at right angles to the direction of load.
Edge Distance (e): It is the distance of bolt hole from the adjacent edge of the plate.

4. List the advantages of high strength bolts.

 The possibility of failure at the net section under the working loads is eliminated.
  The load is transferred by friction, there is no stress concentration in the holes.
 Unlike riveted joints, few persons are required for making the connections.
 No heating is required and no danger of tossing of bolt. Thus safety of the
workers is enhanced.
5. What are HSFG bolts?
High Strength Friction Grip Bolts (HSFG) bolts are high strength structural bolts. Which
have been tightened such as to induce tension in the bolt shank, due to the tension in the
bolt, the interface between the plies (steel members in a joint) cannot move relative to
each.
6. What are prying forces?
The prying force is nothing but the additional tensile force which are developed in the
bolts. When connections subjected to tension forces the connected part can leads to
deformation that increases the tension applied to the bolt so that the additional force is
generated in the blots due to joint plates.

7. What are black bolts? Where are they used?

Black bolts made from M.S shank left unfinished – remain loose in holes resulting in
large deflections. It is used during erection and for temporary structures.
8. What is meant by pitch of bolted joint?
Pitch of the Bolts (p): It is the centre-to-centre spacing of the bolts in a row, measured
along the direction of load.
9. List the types of failure of bolted joints.
 Shear failure of bolt
 Shear failure of plate
 Bearing failure of bolt
 Bearing failure of plate
 Tension failure of bolt
 Bearing failure of bolts
 Tearing failure of bolts