Experimental study on stainless steel blind bolted T-stub to square hollow section connections

This paper presents an experimental study on blind bolted T-stub to square hollow section (SHS) connections made by stainless steel. Experiments were conducted to investigate the structural behaviour (e.g., failure mode, load-displacement curve and load-carrying capacity) of T-to-SHS connections and their basic components, including bolts, T-stubs and SHSs. The effects of key parameters, such as bolt types, bolt layouts, tube thicknesses and specimen configurations, on the performance of T-to-SHS connections and the components were identified. Design formulas were proposed to estimate the load-carrying capacities of T-stubs and SHSs, which agree well with the experimental results. The experimental results on connections between T-stub and steel hollow sections will provide a basis for verifying numerical simulations and theoretical analysis to derive design equations for such stainless-steel connections.