Analyzing of bolted joints for connecting rectangular hollow sections in reticulated shells

ABSTRACT This paper investigates a novel joint method for connecting rectangular hollow section (RHS) members in reticulated shells. It is proposed to overcome the problem of connecting rectangular tubes using the traditional joint (cast steel joint) under dead and snow load. A case study is a structure in the eastern region of Turkey that was built on August 20, 2019. This museum-style structure is 40 meters long and 20 meters wide, with an oval shape. In the middle of the building, five tree-shaped columns were used. ANSYS is used to create a refined 3D solid model of the RHS joint. The moment-rotation results show that the proposed RHS joint (plate steel joint) for connecting rectangular hollow section members can be considered a semi-rigid connection and preferred due to its lower cost and weight. Moreover, the dissipated energy capacity has been raised by approximately 3.22 times when the plate steel type model has been used instead of the cast steel type. The stress ratios indicate that the connection stress in the Cast steel type model is lower than the stress in the Plate steel type model. As a result, the Cast steel type model is determined to be incredibly safe and more rigid than plate steel. Furthermore, since the resulting stress rates are lower than those of S355 steel, both models (cast and plate steel type models) can be used for connecting RHS.