A comprehensive study into the boltless connections of racking systems

Abstract

In practice, structures of pallet racks are characterized by very wide options of beam-to-column connections. The up to date part of the standard Eurocode 3 considers details for the design of connections. However, experimental determination of the joint properties in steel pallet racks is the most reliable process, since it takes into account an inability to develop a general analytical model for the design of these connections. In this paper, a test procedure for the behavior of beam-to-column connections is presented and the results are analyzed according to the procedure defined in the relevant design codes. With aim to avoid expensive experiments to determine structural properties of different types of connections, a polynomial model and a corresponding numerical model were developed to be used for simulating the experiment. After verification, the developed analytical and numerical model can be applied for investigation of various combinations of beam-to-column connections.