Experimental study on bending behavior of high strength bolted tensile joints with sealant

The short type bolted tensile connection such as end-plate connection is one of the rational methods for connecting steel structural members because of their good characteristics, such as high rigidity, high fatigue durability, easiness of erection without using special facilities and so on. However, in the case of end-plate connections, the prying force occurs due to the deformation of the end plates, and the prying force reduces the strength of the joint. In order to make it possible to reduce the prying force easily, the sealant named as deflective filler plate for the bolted tensile connection has been proposed. In this study, in order to examine the applicability of the sealant, which consists of soft rubber and steel rings, to the steel bridge structures, experimental tests for I-shaped beam specimens connected by the end-plate connection with the proposed sealant are carried out. And based on the experimental results, the influence of the sealant on the bending behavior of the joints is discussed.