I am working on steel bolted angles connection, my issue is when I mesh the flange thickness of the beam and column I got a very different curve from same model when the flange thickness not meshed
I second what Fabian just wrote with just small note - in my opinion it is not shear locking (the meshed model is stiffer). I think it is rather the inadequate meshing for non-linear response both geometrical and material that causes the problem.