Thin-walled profiles and their joint assembly units built with screws: numerical studies of load bearing capacity

Abstract

There is a tendency to reduce weight of load-bearing metal structures being developed and successfully realized in modern building construction. This idea serves as a basis for a whole scientific direction, named Development and application of light steel thin-walled structures (LSTS). Among them, LTST built with pop-rivets and thread-cutting screws are most widespread due to their simplicity and relative cheapness This paper presents numerical studies of LSTS joint assembly units built with screws and their load bearing capacity. The peculiarity of these units consists in misalignment of joint elements. The calculation was performed in the SolidWorks Simulation System. The modeled node is a three-dimensional assembly consisting of solid components. The results of the study are as follows: 1) thin-walled profiles have a significant sensitivity to eccentricity; 2) it is unacceptable to disregard eccentricities for thin-walled profiles and their joint connections; 3) eccentricities should be compensated by measures to improve reliability in joint connections design.