ADVANCEMENTS IN NAILED CONNECTIONS

SUMMARY
Previous research on nailed connections has resulted in the development of design guidelines for shear, bearing and net section fracture failure modes, for both static and fatigue loading.  Since then, new stainless steel powder actuated fasteners (or "nails") have been developed.  The purpose of this experimental study was to determine if the exiting design guidelines are valid, or require modification, for the new stainless steel nails.  A total of 21 nailed connections have been tested under static loading and results confirm that current design guidelines are applicable for connections made with new-generation stainless steel nails.  Furthermore, a total of 16 fatigue tests have been conduted and the sexisting fatigue S-N curves have been modified to accommodate the current experimental data on stainless steel nailed connections. 

PUBLICATIONS
The following is a list of publications resulting from the research described above.

Lecce, M., and Packer, J. A., (2003). "Lap Splice Steel Connections With Stainless Steel Nails", Journal of Structural Engineering, 121(9)., 1250-1258.

Lecce, M., and Packer, J. A., (2002). "Pole Splices using Stainless Steel Nails, Final Report to CIDECT on Programme 8F.

Lecce, M., (2003) "Tube-in-Tube Spliced Connections With Stainless Steel Nails" Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Tubular Structures-ISTS10, M. A. Jaurrieta et al. (Eds.), Madrid, Spain, 593-600.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 
Since receiving the G.J. Jackson Fellowship and completing her Master of Applied Science and Engineering degree at the University of Toronto, Maura Lecce earned a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sydney, Department of Civil Engineering.  She is currently working at the University of Toronto as a Post-Doctoral Fellow.  Dr. Lecce may be contacted at maura@utmail.to.