ABSTRACT
Hot riveting was largely used as method of assembly in France during the expansion of the railway network from the 1840s to the 1940s. Present in puddled iron and steel constructions, rivets are commonly found in the French railway heritage. Three main failure mechanisms have been identified: the tension on the plates, the shearing of the rivet and the bearing pressure applied by the rivet shank on the rivet hole. Since the dimensions of the specimens were chosen to provoke the failure of the joint in the middle plate as well as the unavailability of puddled iron rivets, steel rivets were used for all specimens. Specimens used in material characterisation tensile tests were designed following the ISO 6892-1 international standard. One of the main purposes of the experimental strategy was to expose the influence of the constitutive materials on the mechanical behaviour of riveted assemblies.
