EXPERIMENTAL AND FINITE ELEMENT RESEARCH ON THREADED-SLEEVE CONNECTION IN TENSION

The threaded-sleeve connection (TSC) is a new kind of grid structure connection which is developed from the welded ball joint. The TSC could be fabricated easily through its threads of the extended end. In this paper, the butt type of TSC is analyzed to verify the feasibility of the connection. The tension mechanical properties and failure mechanism of the extended end is analyzed by axial tension and eccentric tension experiment. Numerical analysis results are obtained as well. It is shown that the TSC shares good properties and its bearing capacity for axial and eccentric tension load are nearly similar, which is about 71% of the pipe with same diameter and wall thickness. The extended part of threads is the weak part of the connection, which occurs obvious necking before failure (ductile failure). It is found that the experimental result is well in agreement with the theoretical model, which proved the reasonable of analytical model.