NextJoints
Calculation of simple steel joints in one click

The NextJoints application provides one-click calculation of shear bolted joints in steel and aluminium metal structures.
It can work as:

  • stand-alone application (a)
  • plugin in NextFEM Designer (b)

The program currently supports:

  • Steel shear joints, bolts without preloading
  • Aluminium shear joints, bolts without preloading

The program works by considering the beam end and the node associated with it, assuming the presence of a plate connected to the joint (e.g. the flange of an angle bracket, or a plate for head-to-head connection).

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A

Download NextJoints

Versione minima richiesta di NextFEM Designer: 2.4.3.2

Devi fare il login per scaricare gratuitamente il programma.

Reference codes

The following normative references were used:

  1. EN 1993-1-1: Eurocode 3 – Design of steel structures – Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings
  2. Italian Ministry of Infrastructures, D.M. 17-01-2018 (in the following, NTC2018) and Annex no. 617, 02/02/2009
  3. EN 1999-1-1 (Eurocode 9)

User interface

The main input values are as follows:

  • Material: select the material of the connected beam
  • Section: section of the connected beam
  • Joint type: set the option as Bolts in web
  • Bolts num.: bolt number
  • Bolts grade: bolt class
  • Bolts diam.: bolts diameter
  • Shear planes: shear planes of the connection. Typically for connections symmetrical with respect to the vertical axis of the beam (e.g. connection with double angle, on double profile, etc.) the shear planes are 2.
  • Plate thickness: thickness of the plate connected to the beam (e.g. angle, etc.)
  • Check: field showing the Demand/Capacity (D/C) ratio of the verified joint.

If started as a plug-in from the Plugins ribbon of NextFEM Designer, the program derives sections, materials and stresses from the open model for the verification of joints.

 

When run as standalone, the application allows the design of joints from library materials and sections for both steel and aluminium.

 

CAD drawing

Get the CAD drawing of the drilled profile immediately with the ‘Save DXF’ button.

NextJoints makes it easy to calculate bolted joints!