Experimental study on high-cycle fatigue performance of cold-rolled steel sheet connections using self-tapping screws and blind rivets

To provide more suggestions for the anti-fatigue design of cold-formed steel, a series of high-cycle fatigue tests are carried out on cold-rolled steel sheets connected by self-tapping screws and blind rivets in this paper. Subsequently, fatigue failure mode, fatigue strength, and fatigue damage are analyzed in detail. The test results show that all effective data points are below the S-N curve of screws in the code. Meanwhile, the fatigue limit values of the fitted curves with 95% survival probability fall within the range of 0.3 to 0.67 times the specified value. Besides, the fatigue damage expansion rate of cold-rolled steel sheets is less than the standard value. Through further discussion, it is noticed that metal grade has little influence on the fatigue performance, while thickness has a significantly positive influence on the shear resistance and fatigue performance. Moreover, the fatigue performance of the two connection types appears to be similar. The base metal has little effect on the fatigue performance of cold-rolled steel connections. Thickness raises the shear and fatigue performance of cold-rolled steel connections. The fatigue performance of the two types of cold-rolled steel connections is similar.