Keywords: composite slab, shear connection, rolled embossment numerical modelling.

The paper deals with the composite action of steel-concrete composite slabs with profiled steel sheeting. The mechanical and frictional interlocks result in a complex behaviour and failure under horizontal shear. This is why the design characteristics can be determined only by standardized experiments. The aim of the ongoing research work is to (i) simplify the experiments and (ii) to develop an advanced numerical model for the simulation based derivation of the constants.

A pilot experimental program was completed on "short beam" specimens, with the geometry of 150x150x700 mm, and using a half wave of an open trough profile with and without rolled embossments for the composite beams. This novel type of laboratory experiment is introduced in the paper.

In parallel with laboratory investigations, a systematic finite element model developed is analysed using the finite element program ANSYS [1]. By the modelling of the composite connection and the modelling of the concrete material a parametric investigation was accomplished based on the laboratory experiment. As the result of the numerical modelling completed up to the present time, an adequate concrete and reinforced concrete model is obtained by verification with authors' experiments.

To create the composite beam model, the numerical modelling of rolled embossments is essential. A numerical local model was worked out for fictive rolled embossments where the basic behaviour modes were observed. A parametric study was accomplished as well, according to published experiments [2]. The test results showed that some of them do not show coherence with experimental results. However the chosen experiment for model verification worked with traditional experimental specimens, which considers more than one embossment in the analysis. A refined numerical local model was created [3] and also analyzed; and a proposal for local model formation was defined based on the modelling observations.

Both of the analysis of fictive and refined local model confirmed the necessity of laboratory experiments to prove the numerical test results, because the relationship between analyzed parameters and the reaction of the model is not always obvious. Hence a pilot experimental investigation for local model calibration is planned, which permits the study of the effect of a single separated embossment.

1

ANSYS, ANSYS Inc, 2006.

2

V. Marimuthu, S. Seetharaman, A.A. Jayachandran, A. Chellappan, T.K. Banndyopadhyay, D. Dutta, "Experimental studies on composite deck slabs to determine the shear-bond characteristic (m-k) values of the embossed profiled sheet", Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 63, 791-803, 2007. doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2006.07.009

3

M.J. Burnet, D.J. Oehlers, "Rib shear connectors in composite profiled slabs", Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 57, 1267-1287, 2001. doi:10.1016/S0143-974X(01)00038-4

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the previous paper
go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to the book description
purchase this book (price £145 +P&P)