• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.375-390
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• 2011

Composite beam, which combined the material characteristic of the steel and concrete, has been widely used in the construction of various building and bridge system. For the effective application of the composite beam, the composite action on the composite interface between the concrete element and the steel element should be achieved by shear connectors. The behavioral characteristics of composite beam are related with the degree of interaction and the degree of shear connection according to the shear strength and shear stiffness of the stud shear connectors. These two concepts are also affected by the number of installed shear connector and the strength of composite materials. In this study, experimental and analytical evaluations of the degree of shear connection affected by stud diameter were conducted, and the relationship between structural behavior and the degree of shear connection was verified. The very small difference among the ultimate loads of the specimens depending on the change of the degree of connection was possibly because of the dependence of the ultimate load on the characteristic of plastic moment of the composite beam.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.315-330
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• 2002

This paper proposes a model for analysing the non-linear behaviour of steel concrete composite beams prestressed by external slipping cables, taking into account the deformability of the interface shear connection. By assuming a suitable admissible displacement field for the composite beam, the balance condition is obtained by the virtual work principle. The solution is numerically achieved by approximating the unknown displacement functions as series of shape functions according to the Ritz method. The model is applied to real cases by showing the consequences of different connection levels between the concrete slab and the steel beam. Particular attention is focused on the limited ductility of the shear connection that may be the cause of premature failure of the composite girder.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.493-506
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• 2020

The load-slip relationship of the shear connection is an important parameter in design and analysis of composite structures. In this paper, a load-slip curve prediction method of the shear connection based on the artificial neural networks (ANNs) is proposed. The factors which are significantly related to the structural and deformation performance of the connection are selected, and the shear stiffness of shear connections and the transverse coordinate slip value of the load-slip curve are taken as the input parameters of the network. Load values corresponding to the slip values are used as the output parameter. A twolayer hidden layer network with 15 nodes and 10 nodes is designed. The test data of two different forms of shear connections, the stud shear connection and the perforated shear connection with flange heads, are collected from the previous literatures, and the data of six specimens are selected as the two prediction data sets, while the data of other specimens are used to train the neural networks. Two trained networks are used to predict the load-slip curves of their corresponding prediction data sets, and the ratio method is used to study the proximity between the prediction loads and the test loads. Results show that the load-slip curves predicted by the networks agree well with the test curves.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.573-599
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• 2014

A new type of connection for steel-concrete composite bridges was developed by the Steel Structures Laboratory of Ecole Poytechinque $F{\acute{e}}d{\acute{e}}rale$ de Lausanne. Resistance to longitudinal shear is based on the development of shear stresses in the confined interfaces which form the connection. Confinement is provided by the reinforced concrete slab which encloses the connection and restrains the uplift (lateral separation) of the interfaces by developing normal stresses. The experimental investigation of the interfaces, under static and cyclic loading, enabled the development of the laws describing the structural behaviour of each interface. Those laws were presented by the authors in previous papers. The current paper focuses on the continuity of the research. It presents the experimental investigation on the new connection by means of push-out tests on specimens submitted to static and cyclic shear loading. Investigation revealed that the damage in the connection, due to cyclic loading, is expressed by the accumulation of a residual slip. A safe fatigue failure criterion is proposed for the connection which enabled the verification of the connection for the fatigue limit state with respect to the limit of fatigue. A numerical model is developed which takes into account the laws describing the interface behaviour and the analytical expressions for the confinement effect, the latter obtained by performing finite element analysis. This numerical model predicts the shear resistance of the connection and enables to assess its fatigue limit which is necessary for the fatigue design proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.729-741
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• 2023

As the most popular shear connection in composite structures, mature concrete has been widely investigated by considering mechanical properties of stud connectors (SCs) embedded. To further enhance the fabrication efficiency of composite structures and solve the contradiction between construction progress and structural performance, it is required to analyze the shear performance of stud connections of composite structures with different concrete ages. 18 typical vertical push-out tests were carried out on stud shear connectors at concrete ages of 7 days, 14 days, and 28 days. Also, the effects of concrete age, stud spacing and stud diameter on the shear capacity, connection stiffness and failure mode of the connectors were studied. A new relationship expression of load-slip for SCs with various concrete ages was proposed. The existing design code for the SCs shear strength was evaluated according to the experimental data, and a more practical prediction equation for the shear capacity of SCs with different concrete ages was established. A great agreement was observed between the experimental and theoretical results, which can provide a reference for engineering practices.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.419-433
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• 2021

In composite structures, shear connectors are crucial components to resist the relative slip between the steel and concrete, and thereby to achieve the composite actions. In the service stage, composite structures are usually in elastic state, so the elastic stiffness of the shear connection is a quite important parameter in the structural analysis of composite structures. Nevertheless, the existing studies mainly focus on the load-slip relationship rather than the tangent stiffness at the initial elastic stage. Furthermore, when composite beams subjected to torque or local load, shear connections are affected by both tensile force and shear force. However, the stiffness of shear connections under combined effects appears not to have been discussed hitherto. This paper investigates the initial elastic stiffness of stud connections under combined effects of biaxial forces. The initial expression and the relevant parameters are obtained by establishing a simplified analytical model of the stud connection. Afterwards, parametric finite element analysis is performed to investigate the effects of the relevant factors, including the stud length, stud diameter, elastic modulus of concrete, elastic modulus of steel and volume ratio of reinforcement. The feasibility of the proposed modelling has been proved by comparing with sufficient experimental tests. Based on the analytical analysis and the extensive numerical simulations, design equations for predicting the initial elastic stiffness of stud connections are proposed. The comparison between the equations and the data of finite element models demonstrates that the equations are accurate enough to serve for engineering communities.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.649-662
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• 2020

Although several types of rigid shear connectors have been developed particularly to increase load-carrying capacity, application is limited due to the complicated details of such connection. In this study, push-out tests were performed for specimens with hybrid shear connectors using headed studs and shear plates to identify the effects of each parameter on the structural performance of such shear connection. The test parameters included steel ratios of headed stud to shear plate, connection length, and embedded depth of shear plates. The peak strength and residual strength were estimated using various shear transfer mechanisms such as stud shear, concrete bearing, and shear friction. The hybrid shear connectors using shear plates and headed studs showed large load-carrying capacity and deformation capacity. The peak strength was predicted by the concrete bearing strength of the shear plates. The residual strength was sufficiently predicted by the stud shear strength of headed studs or by shear friction strength of dowel reinforcing bars. Further, the finite element analysis was performed to verify the shear transfer mechanism of the connection with hybrid shear connector.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2017

A new composite tube connection method called the pre-tightened teeth connection technique is proposed to improve the composite tube connection efficiency. This paper first introduces the manufacturing process of the proposed technique. It then outlines how the mechanical properties of this technology were tested using four test groups. The factors that influence the load-bearing capacity and damage model of the connection were analyzed, and finally, the transfer load mechanism was investigated. The following conclusions can be obtained from the research results. (1) The new technique improves the compressive connection efficiency by a maximum of 79%, with the efficiency exceeding that of adhesive connections of the same thickness. (2) Changing the depth of teeth results in two types of damage: local compressive damage and shear damage. The bearing capacity can be improved by increasing the depth, length, and number of teeth as well as the pre-tightening force. (3) The capacity of the technique to transfer high loads is a result of both the relatively high interlaminar shear strength of the pultruded composite and the interlaminar shear strength increase provided by the pre-tightening force. The proposed technique shows favorable mechanical properties, and therefore, it can be extensively applied in the engineering field.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5A
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• pp.873-880
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• 2006

PSC composite bridge with precast decks which was designed by the proposed horizontal shear equation was fabricated. Fatigue test was performed to evaluate the endurance of shear connection and the behavior of PSC composite bridge. After all the fatigue loading were applied, no crack and no residual slip were occurred. The flexural stiffness of PSC composite bridge was maintained the initial value, and demage of shear connection was not occurred. To verify the applicability of horizontal shear equation and shear connection detail and to evaluate the strength of PSC composite bridges, static test was also executed. PSC composite bridges with precast decks had 2.08 safety factor which was the ratio of crack to serviceability load and showed ductile behavior after ultimate load. Test results showed that the proposed design equation of the shear connection gave reasonable horizontal shear connection design. Fast and easy construction would be achieved using the suggested precast system.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.3A
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• pp.229-239
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• 2010

For the purpose of improvement of the load carrying capacity and constructibility of the conventional steel-concrete composite girder through a effective appliance of the construction materials and optimization of the girder section, a new type section of composite girder and RC shear connection were proposed. In this study shear strength of the RC shear connection is estimated, and the characteristics of shear load-slip behaviour is analyzed. Push-out tests on shear specimens and FEM analysis with various design parameters are carried out, and results are analyzed. The results of test and FEM analysis showed that shear strength of RC shear connection is underestimated by the design provisions of the current design code. By regression analysis a empirical equation for the estimation of shear strength of RC shear connection is proposed.