Influence of Various Cutting Methods on the Fatigue Strength of Slip-Resistant Connections in Steel Structures

Fatigue analysis is a critical design aspect for slip-resistant connections subjected to cyclic loading. Slip-resistant connections are assumed to have a high fatigue strength comparable to the level of the cut base material due to the uniform and planar force transmission resulting from the preloaded bolting assemblies. For this reason, most commonly, the fatigue design of slip-resistant connections is based on the Δσ-concept according to DIN EN 1993-1-9, regardless of the manufacturing conditions, such as various cutting processes. To investigate whether the various cutting processes have an impact on the fatigue strength, the presented study has been carried out. The presented study was conducted on slip-resistant connections manufactured by water jet cutting, oxy-fuel cutting (without and with post-treatment), and plasma cutting. The results of the fatigue tests demonstrated that all investigated cutting processes yielded higher fatigue resistances than those specified in DIN EN 1993-1-9 and FprEN 1993-1-9 of the second generation. Additionally, no significant influence of the cutting process on the fatigue behaviour was observed.