Behaviour of hybrid stainless-carbon steel composite beam-column joints with blind bolts

![CDATA[Composite structures can be constructed by the combined use of different materials including stainless steel, carbon steel and concrete. For example, concrete-filled stainless steel tubes (CFSS1) can be used as columns to improve the durability of critical elements in a structure, whereas carbon steel can be used to fabricate steel beams to avoid a significant increase in construction costs. To connect carbon steel beams with CFSST columns, reliable beam-column joints must be developed In recent years, blind bolt technology is gaining popularity in tubular structures since the blind bolt can be easily fastened from the outside of a steel tube. Therefore, blind bolts were proposed by the authors to connect carbon steel beams to CFSST columns. An experimental program has been conducted to investigate the behaviour of hybrid stainless-carbon steel composite beam-column joints with or without slabs. A total of 7 joint specimens were designed and fabricated accordingly. The main variables include: i) presence of the slab; ii) column section type (square, circular); iii) presence of the binding bars; iv) steel type of the column (stainless, carbon); and v) loading type (monotonic, cyclic loading). The test results show that the blind-bolted connections have outstanding structural properties in terms of initial rotational stiffness, ultimate moment and rotational capacity. A FE model is developed to investigate the influence of various parameters. Based on the parametric study, a mathematical model is developed to predict moment-rotation curves of the composite joints.]]