Connections carrying design action effects, except for lacing connections, connections of sag rods, purlins and girts, shall be designed to transmit the greater of
- a) the design action in the member; and
- b) the minimum design action effects expressed either as the value or the factor times the member design capacity for the minimum size of member required by the strength limit state, specified as follows:
- Connections in rigid construction — a bending moment of at least 0.5 times the member design moment capacity
- Connections to beam in simple construction - a shear force of at least 0.15 times the member design shear capacity or 40 kN, whichever is lesser
- Connections at the ends of tensile or compression member — a force of at least 0.3 times the member design capacity
- Splices in members subjected to axial tension — a force of at least 0.3 times the member design capacity in tension
- Splices in members subjected to axial compression — for ends prepared for full contact in accordance with 17.7.1, it shall be permissible to carry compressive actions by bearing on contact surfaces. When members are prepared for full contact to bear at splices, there shall be sufficient fasteners to hold all parts securely in place. The fasteners shall be sufficient to transmit a force of at least 0.15 times the member design capacity in axial compression.
When members are not prepared for full contact, the splice material and its fasteners shall be arranged to hold all parts in line and shall be designed to transmit a force of at least 0.3 times the member design capacity in axial compression.
In addition, splices located between points of effective lateral support shall be designed for the design axial force, plus a design bending moment, not less than the design bending moment
where, is the distance between points of effective lateral support.
- Splices in flexural members — a bending moment of 0.3 times the member design capacity in bending. This provision shall not apply to splices designed to transmit shear force only.
A splice subjected to a shear force only shall be designed to transmit the design shear force together with any bending moment resulting from the eccentricity of the force with respect to the centroid of the group.
- Splices in members subject to combined actions — a splice in a member subject to a combination of design axial tension or design axial compression and design bending moment shall satisfy requirements in (4), (5) and (6) above simultaneously.
For earthquake load combinations, the design action effects specified in this section may need to be increased to meet the required behaviour of the steel frame and shall comply with Section 12.