CHICAGO – There’s a new must-have resource for anyone designing connections with stainless steel bolts: Design Guide 41, Structural Joints Using Stainless Steel Bolts, from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the Research Council on Structural Connections (RCSC).

Design Guide 41 contains helpful information about specifying, designing, installing, and inspecting connections using stainless steel bolts, all formatted to align with the provisions of the RCSC Specification for Structural Joints Using High-Strength Bolts.

The guide thoroughly reviews and provides appropriate guidance for considerations unique to stainless steel bolts, including connections between stainless steel elements as well as those between stainless and carbon steels. 

These recommendations expand upon existing design provisions and information in the RCSC Specification, ANSI/AISC 370-21, and the second edition of AISC Design Guide 27, Structural Stainless Steel. The new guide covers snug-tight, pretensioned, and slip-critical bolted connections, with several useful design examples to illustrate the concepts discussed.

The joint AISC/RCSC guide was authored by some of the industry’s leading experts: Francisco Meza, PhD, principal engineer at the Steel Construction Institute (SCI); Nancy Baddoo, associate director at SCI; and Jason Provines, PE, senior research scientist at the Virginia Transportation Research Council. 

Design Guide 41 is available for download at aisc.org/dg. Like all digital design guides, it is free for AISC members.