Suggested Steel Ductility Requirements

Test evidence is presented on the performance under tension of perforated plates, bolted connections and formability of corners, supplemented by an elastic-plastic analysis of perforated and notched plates, in order to arrive at suggested lower limits of structurally satisfactory ductility. For a crude identification of adequately ductile steels, it is suggested that a minimum conventional elongation in 2 minimum tensile 7% and a minimum tensile to yield strength ratio of 1.05 may serve as criteria. It is not maintained that steels with even lower ductility cannot be used structurally for particular applications and under adequate controls.