Cyclic behavior of T-stub connection to hollow section steel column using TSOBs

The One-side bolts are widely used in the connection of the closed section members in the prefabricated buildings. As a novel type of one-side bolt, T-head Square-neck One-side Bolt has the advantages of the simple structure, the convenient installation, and no need for special installation tools. In this paper, the sub-model for the tension region of the T-stub bolted beam-column connection was selected as the research object, and the cyclic test was conducted on four T-head Square-neck One-side Bolted Connections (TSOBCs) for T-stub to Hollow Section Steel Column (HSSC) and two Traditional High-strength Bolted Connections (THBCs) for comparison. The results of the test including the failure modes, the applied force-displacement hysteretic curves, the applied force-displacement envelope curves, the deformation capacity and ductility, the strength degradation, the stiffness degradation, the energy dissipation, and the strain evolution are discussed and analyzed in this paper. The experimental results denote that: (1) There are two failure modes in the test, mode i, HSSC wall yielding and mode ii, T-stub flange yielding; (2) The initial stiffness and peak bearing capacity of the TSOBCs decreased by 2.5% ~ 35.6% and 21.7% ~ 39.4%, respectively, compared with those of the THBCs; (3) When the failure mode ii occurred, the ductility and the equivalent damping coefficient of the TSOBC with vertical mounting holes are 42.5% and 5.4% higher than those of the THBC, respectively. Besides, the plastic deformation, rigid displacement, and bolt offset in the TSOBCs are analyzed using finite element models. [Display omitted] •A novel T-head Square-neck One-side Bolted Connection (TSOBC) was proposed.•Test on TSOBC of T-stub to hollow section column under cyclic load was conducted.•Cyclic performances of TSOBC were compared with traditional bolted connection.•Vertical mounting hole improves the ductility and energy dissipation of TSOBC.