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Current design codes for fire resistance of structures are based on isolated member tests subjected to standard fire conditions. Such tests do not reflect the behaviour of a complete building under either normal temperature or fire conditions. Many aspects of behaviour occur due to the interaction between members and cannot be predicted or observed in tests of isolated elements. Performance of real structures subject to real fires is often much better than that predicted from standard tests due to structural continuity and the provision of alternative load paths. This paper reports on the results of a collaborative research project (Tensile membrane action and robustness of structural steel joints under natural fire, European Community FP5 project HPRI-CV 5535) involving the following institutions: Czech Technical University (Czech Republic), University of Coimbra (Portugal), Slovak Technical University (Slovak Republic) and Building Research Establishment (United Kingdom). It consists of an experimental programme to investigate the global structural behaviour of a compartment on the 8-storey steel-concrete composite frame building at the Cardington laboratory during a BRE large-scale fire test, aimed at the examination of the temperature development within the various structural elements, the corresponding (dynamic) distribution of internal forces and the behaviour of the composite slab, beams, columns and connections. r

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This paper describes the prediction of stiffness of bolted cover plate connections with slots perpendicular to the acting force. The wok is based on three sets of tests: experiments on connections with more bolt rows and different bolt forming technology prepared at the CRIF laboratory in Liege, experiments with long slots finished at the laboratory of Technical University Nottingham, and experiments with components completed at the Czech Technical University in Prague. The work shows the application of the component method to the prediction of stiffness of the cover plate connections. The component bolt/plate in bearing is evaluated. A special attention is paid to the modelling of the bolt force distribution for different bolt tolerances.

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