Investigation of Structural Steel Webs for Punching Shear

Shear tab connections or simple connections are widely used in structural steel structures. There are several limit states associated with these connections such bolt shear, bolt bearing, block shear, shear yielding and shear rupture. A modified version of the shear tab has been developed during the last decade, which is extended shear tab connections. In developing design provisions for the extended shear tab connections, experimental work showed that there are additional limit states other than those mentioned above that limit the capacity of the extended shear connection. Extended shear tab connections could be used to frame beam-to-column or beam-to-girder. In the case where a beam is framed into girder, a new limit state develops in the web of the supporting girder. This limit state is punching shear of the supporting girder web which is due to a higher moment. The higher moment in extended shear tab connections is due to the larger moment arm (eccentricity) from the bolt line, the location of the shear force, to the support, which is in this case the girder's web. This study investigates the supporting girder web using experimental work, finite element analysis, and yield line theory. This paper shows the result of this investigation and proposes an evaluation of the web capacity equation which should be used when calculating the beam-to-girder connection capacity.