Behaviour of bolted flange joints in tubular structures under monotonic, repeated and fatigue loadings I: Experimental tests

•Experimental tests on bolted flange plate connections are presented.•The tests were performed under monotonic, low-cycle and high-cycle loadings.•Critical analysis from the tests results is drawn.•Existing design methods in literature for the investigated joints are summarised.•Strength and failure mode given by the methods are compared with the test ones.

This paper presents a test program on bolted flange plate connections used in circular tubular structures. In the tested joints, the connected tubular elements are made of high strength steel (TS590) whilst normal steel grade (S355) is used for the flanges. The tests were performed under monotonic loadings to obtain the mechanical properties of the connections and under cyclic loadings to characterise the behaviour of these connections for low cycle and high cycle fatigue. The test results are first presented herein, including a critical analysis of the latter; then, design methods available in literature are applied for the tested configurations with the objective to investigate the accuracy of these methods through comparisons with the experimental results.