Mechanical Behavior of Metal Contact Joint

This paper discusses the transmitting capacity of the so-called surface or metal contact joints by which the compressive stresses are transmitted through the directly contacting surface of steel plates. The imperfections of the contacted surface are modeled by the cylindrical and periodical sinusoidal form, and the stress distribution up to the yield state is simulated using the finite element method as a contact problem. The yielded portion of the plate spreads in the relatively small portion close to the surface, and the longitudinal displacements are not so large in this state. Therefore, the contact joint can transmit compressive loads of almost the full plastic capacity. The stress sharing with the splice plate is also evaluated by a simple spring model associated with the roughness of the contact joint, and is closely related to the bolt pitch. Therefore, the maximum tolerance for the gaps should be determined by the tolerable deformation of the contact joints and the requirements for the combined bolted joints as a total system.