ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The non linear and ductile behaviour of stainless steel, with a high ratio of the ultimate to yield strength, guarantee an excellent global behaviour of the connection. The EC31.4 requirements for stainless steel connection design are close to that for carbon steel. However, some modifications were introduced to avoid excessive deformations at the SLS. In this paper, the experimental results for the cover-plate connections and bolts, are compared to the predictions of EC3. The tests show that the various ultimate state connection resistance are safely predicted. A presentation of the major differences between carbon and stainless steel is given. That concern the Ultimate and Serviceability Limit States criterion applied on bearing, net and gross sections. The stainless steel connection show a large deformation before failure. The study is now being complimented by the use of finite element modelling in order to extend the results to the design of other geometrical configurations and other types of connections.
