Experimental investigation of cold-formed steel clip angles connected to thin-walled members

Abstract

Considering the importance of cold-formed steel clip angles in light-weight structures, this paper presents an experimental investigation into the behavior of cold-formed steel clip angles when one leg is connected to a thin-walled member and the other leg is subjected to tension forces. Of particular interests were ultimate tensile and shear resistances, as well as different potential failure modes, such as pull-out, pull-through, and bearing/tilting. Effects of various design parameters were investigated, including number of screws, size of screws, thickness of the member connected to the screw head, thickness of the member connected to the screw threads, ratio of the distance between the clip angle's corner and the bolt row to the distance between the corner and the screw row, and screw installation direction. The data obtained from experimental tests were compared to those obtained from current design standards’ equations. Subsequently, new design equations were proposed for the pull-out and bearing strengths as the dominant failure modes in order to overcome the overestimation and the underestimation of existing equations. © 2024 Institution of Structural Engineers