IDEA StatiCa Connection can now recognize all steel filler plates (packing plates) correctly, reducing the bolt strength accordingly.
When a filler plate (packing plate) is designed in a bolted connection, the reduction factor βp for the Shear resistance check should be applied using a new algorithm for filler plate recognition.
The reduction factor βp is taken into account and displayed in the check equation by default. It can be turned off in the Code setup.
Filler plates (in other terminology, packing plates) are used to fill the gap in bolted connections when aligning connections of plates with different thicknesses.
Available in IDEA StatiCa Steel and IDEA StatiCa Complete editions.