IES VAConnect User's Guide
Double Angle Bolted Welded Design
Double Angle Bolted Welded (i.e. bolted to the support and welded to the beam) connections are used to connect steel beams to column or girders. VAConnect is capable of designing these connections to support coped beams and to resist both shear and axial loads.
Double Angle Bolted Welded connections are checked per the AISC Steel Construction Manual Part 10 (16th Edition) and AISC 360-22 design specifications. In accordance with AISC part 10, the eccentricity on the supported side of the double-angle connection (i.e. the beam side) is always considered since the double angles are welded to the beam. VAConnect accounts for eccentricity using the Instantaneous Center of Rotation method to determine the eccentric weld group capacity at the beam side of the double angles and at the web of the beam. The “C” coefficients for eccentrically loaded weld groups are included in the detailed reports.
VAConnect assumes that the pin (which allows for rotational ductility) occurs at the face of the support. Therefore, eccentricity at the faying surface of the double angles and the support is not considered. While VAConnect limits the maximum thickness of the double angle connection to 5/8 inches to allow for flexibility in the connection, the workable gage of the bolts to the support is not specifically checked in the program.
VAConnect also allows double angle bolted welded connections to be designed for combined eccentric shear force (force in-plane and parallel to the depth of the beam's web) and axial force (force in-plane and perpendicular to depth of the beam's web) according to the AISC Steel Construction Manual Part 12 (16th Edition) and closely following Example II.A-2B of the AISC Design Examples Version 16.0. Bolt shear and tension interaction (including prying) and biaxial block shear interaction are both accounted for according to the example.
Since the AISC Design Examples Version 16.0 does not explicitly address this combined force condition for double angles bolted welded connections when the beam has a significant offset, VAConnect uses the methods outlined in Example II.A-19B (Extended single-plate connection subject to axial and shear loading) to design the legs of the angles that are connected to the beam for combined eccentric shear and axial force. Specifically, the interaction of the shear, axial, and flexural loads are considered for both the yielding/buckling limit state and for the rupture limit state. The program’s detailed reports clearly document how the various limit states are checked.
Beams coped at one or both flanges are checked per the AISC Steel Construction Manual Part 9 (16th Edition) and AISC 360-22 design specifications. The 16th Edition of the AISC Steel Construction Manual does not explicitly address how to design coped beams for combined shear and axial loading. Therefore, VAConnect uses the same methodology as the shear tab in Part 12 of the AISC Steel Construction Manual (16th Edition) and in Example II.A-19B of the AISC Design Examples Version 16.0 to account for the interaction of the shear, axial, and flexural loads for both the yielding/buckling and the rupture cases of the coped beam. Furthermore, the interaction for biaxial block shear on the coped beam is accounted for according to the aforementioned example.
VAConnect checks the following limit states for Double Angle Bolted Welded Connections (refer to the program’s detailed reports for specific code references):