Proceedings of the 1 st Iberic Conference on Theoretical and Experimental Mechanics and Materials / 11 th National Congress on Experimental Mechanics. Porto/Portugal 4-7 November 2018. Ed. J.F. Silva Gomes. INEGI/FEUP (2018); ISBN: 978-989-20-8771-9; pp. 705-710. -705- PAPER REF: 7319 ANALYSIS OF THE SHEAR BEHAVIOR OF STRUCTURAL METAL JOINTS BASED ON THE USE OF GIRDER CLAMPS Manuel Cabaleiro (*) , Borja Conde, José C. Caamaño, Belén Riveiro, Leticia Gonzalez Department of Materials Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Construction, School of Industrial Engineering, University of Vigo, C.P. 36208, Vigo, Spain (*) Email: mcabaleiro@uvigo.es ABSTRACT Currently, industrial plants are demanding easily removable and reconfigurable structures, so that whenever it is necessary to change the production lines or the corresponding facilities, existing structures do not need to be necessarily scrapped. This fact would imply not only an important economic saving but also a significant positive impact from an environmental point of view. This way, bolted structures - which nowadays account with a widespread use - despite being removable, are not reconfigurable, since the diverse components have drilled holes and welded plates, which make each element manufactured for a fixed and unique position. A really interesting solution would be the use of clamped joints. Girder clamps allow fully removable and reconfigurable structures since the profiles only need to be cut to size. However, the use of girder clamps as union elements is still pending of more studies and developments to enable the adoption of this type of connection in future designs of industrial structures. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to carry out the experimental testing of the shear transmission in a steel joint based on the use of girder clamps. The study of the behavior of the joint is performed by considering the girder length as well as its number as the main parameters. The results obtained are also compared with the theoretical ones. Keywords: Structural steel joints, girder clamps, shear transmission, experimental testing. INTRODUCTION Currently, the industrial production plants demand that in the replacement of the production lines, structures, or their own facilities, do not need to be necessarily scrapped and they can be eventually reconfigured. This way, important economic savings together with an important positive impact in environmental terms will be achieved. Traditional bolted joints are characterized by having to make drills and place welded plates on the profiles, which thus results in a fixed and unique position for each element. For this reason, it can be stated that this type of union is removable but not reconfigurable. In this sense, a promising solution is the use of clamp joints. Clamps joints allow the structure to be completely removable and reconfigurable, only having to cut the profiles at the required size. In the current literature, there are many studies dealing with the analysis of classical bolted joints [1,5]. For standard beams such as IPE, IPN or HE, clamps are already being used as union systems [6-8] (Figure 1), but mainly on secondary (non-structural) elements, such as the in the case of fastening mechanical elements of railroad tracks or in the supports of facilities. Yet, this type of joint could also be used on the main structural members.