MNSEA Monthly Meeting: Bolted HSS Connections (1/13/26)

Description

Presentation: Bolted HSS Connections
Most engineers approach HSS connections with the thinking these connections always need to be welded.  While welding is an excellent and common method of connecting HSS together, field welding can be costly, time consuming and uniquely challenging.

Since a lot of engineers in the US and Canada delegate the responsibility of connection design to the project’s fabricator, they may not always be aware of some of the options out there for bolted connections. 

This 1-hour presentation will introduce the attendee to available bolting solutions for HSS that make connection design and construction easier. It will show several connection technologies and typical details that utilize bolts in field connections of HSS.  Connection types will include bracing, shear, moment and truss connections.

Learning Objectives

• Identify options for bolted field connections for HSS
• Understand that limit states for HSS bolted connections are similar to other bolted connections
• Recognize that there is no “right way” to do bolted HSS connections.

Participants will receive 1.0 PDH.
 
Presenter
Brad Fletcher, S.E.
Atlas Tube

Brad Fletcher, S.E., is the senior structural engineer at Atlas Tube. In this role, Brad leverages his 34 years of experience in engineering design and the steel industry to provide technical expertise on the use of steel hollow structural sections (HSS) to design engineers and architects.

A registered structural engineer in the state of Illinois, Brad has held senior positions at leading architecture and engineering firms, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Sargent & Lundy; and Halvorson and Partners. For the past 20 years, Brad has focused his efforts on serving as a liaison between structural designers and the steel industry.

Brad holds a BSCE and MSCE from Purdue University. He is active in many industry groups, including AISC, CISC, CSA, STI and ASTM International.