Development of generalised design procedures for steel extended shear tab connections

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Shear tabs are one of the most common shear connections used in conventional steel-frame construction due to their simplicity and relatively low cost. A significant amount of research has been done on standard shear tabs, where the connection eccentricity is small and the shear tab is affixed to a relatively rigid support such as a column flange. As such, design methods for standard shear tabs are well-established and they are used routinely in steel structures. However, far less information is available for the design of extended shear tabs, which are desirable for cases where joints can be simplified by extending the plate to keep the bolted connection region clear of any impediments to clean joint configurations and simple erection techniques. Two of the most common situations where extended shear tabs are economically desirable are when connecting a beam to a column web or to a girder web. In these cases, longer shear tabs clear the flanges of the supporting column or girder and thereby avoid the need to cope the beam flanges for fit-up purposes and for facilitating erection of the beam in the field. Extended shear tabs can be stiffened by connecting the top and bottom edges of the tab to the horizontal plate elements (continuity plates or flanges) of the supporting member. The proposed research program has as its overarching purpose the development of an improved understanding of the behaviour of extended shear tabs and the potential limit states that may be encountered. This will be achieved with a comprehensive experimental investigation that includes a variety of connection geometries and loading conditions, and evaluates the observed connection performance in a unified way. A secondary, but also extremely important, goal is to encourage cost-effective connections in conventional structural steelwork, providing an impetus for facilitating an increased use of the unstiffened version of the extended shear tab.