Abstract: The authors investigate the shear performance of steel-to-sleeve connections with overflowed grout by conducting six shear tests on a large scale, examining the effect of the shear key arrangement, spacing, and row configuration. These findings provide a design and application basis for steel-to-sleeve connections with overflowed grout. The test results reveal the following: (1) Specimen failure modes involve steel push-out, sleeve expansion deformation, and grout collapse near the shear keys. (2) The shear-slip curve exhibits three distinct phases: micro-slip, slip, and descending sections. (3) The contribution of the web′s shear key to the specimen′s shear capacity is 21.2% lower than that of the steel flange′s shear key. When the shear key spacing is decreased from 90 to 60 mm, the shear capacity of the specimen increases by 51.6%. (4) When the shear key row is increased from 3 to 6, the shear capacity of the specimen increases by 65.9%, whereas the shear key decreases by 17.0% per unit length of a shear key row. In addition, a nonlinear finite element model of the steel-to-sleeve connection with overflow grout is developed using ABAQUS software, considering the interface relationship. The finite element analysis results agree well with the test results.

Key words: steel-to-sleeve connection with overflowed grout, shear test, shear-slip curve, shear capacity, finite element analysis