The objective of the present investigation was to study the interaction of bearing and tensile loads on the creep behavior of joints. To achieve this objective, a simplified model was employed which contained many of the features found in riveted connections. Through the use of this simulated joint, an analysis of complex regions in actual joints could be effected. In the study, results for a number of tensile-to-bearing load ratios were obtained, and the results were analyzed.

Time-dependent methods of analysis for colums, stiffened and unstiffened plates, and torsional members have been developed and programmed for the IBM 709 digital computer. The important material behaviors, i.e., soaking at temperatures, elastic and plastic strain, creep and residual stress and strain under varying temperature inputs, can be accounted for in the digital solutions. Two illustrative examples for obtaining allowable stresses are shown; the first for a stable structure in combined tensile and bending and the second for a column subjected to time-dependent displacements due to creep. These two examples are sufficiently typical to demonstrate the applicability of the procedures developed in this report or other procedures which give the stress-strain-deflection time history of a structure.