Overstrength factor of short low-yield-point steel shear links

Abstract Owing to the relative uncertainty of previous numerical and experimental studies on the behavior of short and very short shear links, this article considers the overstrength factor of short and very short low-yield-point (LYP) steel shear links with or without stiffeners. To this end, 147 I-shaped shear links with link length ratio in the range 0.34–1.83 and made from LYP steel with a nominal yield strength of 100 and 225 MPa are numerically analyzed and compared. The obtained nonlinear finite element results indicate that classifying short links based on the link length ratio, which has been used as a convenient measure of yield behavior, doesn't represent the actual characteristics and behavioral differences between short links. Accordingly, an effective parameter, namely non-dimensional plate slenderness, is introduced in this research to investigate the behavior of short links. Finally, the finite element results are used to derive a new equation for predicting the overstrength factor of short and very short LYP steel shear links. The findings based on the proposed equations are compared to the results of existing experimental studies, indicating a good agreement between the two approaches.