Bolted connections are widely employed in facility structures, such as light masts, transmission poles, and wind turbine towers. The complex connection behavior plays a significant role in the overall dynamic characteristics of a structure. A finite element (FE) modeling study of a bolt-connected square tubular steel beam is presented in this paper. Modal testing was performed in a controlled laboratory condition to validate the FE model, developed for the bolted beam. Two laser Doppler vibrometers were used simultaneously to measure structural vibration. A simplified joint model was proposed to further save computation time for structures with bolted connections. This study is an on-going effort to marshal knowledge associated with detecting damage on facility structures with bolted connections.

Date Published: 16 April 2013
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 8694, Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2013, 869424 (16 April 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2009466

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8694:
Nondestructive Characterization for Composite Materials, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, and Homeland Security 2013
Tzu Yang Yu, Editor(s)