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Abstract

In the 13th and 14th Editions of the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC) Manual of Steel Construction (the Manual herein), provisions have been included that recommend appropriate sizes and thicknesses of steel plate washers to be used in the column base plate and anchor rod assembly. Each washer must have sufficient strength and stiffness to fully develop the anchor rod to which it is fastened without succumbing to pull-through failure, flexural failure, or cracking. Questions received by AISC’s Solution Center spurred some interest in further investigating the values provided in the Manual.

The report presents the results from the laboratory tensile testing of the anchor rod and nut, plate washer and base plate assembly, specifically with regard to the performance of the plate washers in the pull-through failure condition. This testing investigated the capacity of ASTM A572 Gr. 50 plate washers using the Manual’s recommended thicknesses, as well as other thickness values. Threaded rods having 0.75”, 1”, 1.5”, 2”, and 2.5” diameter, as listed in Table 14-2 of the Manual, were developed fully in tension, and the aforementioned plate washers were examined for signs of failure. The permanent out-of-plane deformation of the plate washers was measured after testing as a means of determining if a given washer had failed under tensile loading to the assembly. The testing procedure and the measured results are included herein.