Flexural Behaviour of Prefabricated Ultra-Shallow Steel-Concrete Composite Slabs

This paper presents the results of a parametric finite element (FE) study that investigates the flexural behaviour and bending capacity of a recently developed steel-concrete composite flooring system subjected to static bending tests. The flooring system is composed from prefabricated ultra-shallow slab units (aka PUSS) that consist of T-ribbed concrete floors encased within and connected to two C-channel steel edge beams with horizontally oriented shear connections. The study considers three unique types of shear connection systems, that compose of only horizontally oriented web-welded shear studs (WWSS), only horizontal steel dowels or a combination of horizontal steel dowels with WWSS. The failure mechanism, the shear resisting capacity of the shear connection systems and their behaviour under flexural loads are examined. The present work explores the influence of variable parameters on the performance of the PUSS flooring system. In particular, the parameters under critical investigation are the type, arrangement, and size of the shear connectors (WWSS and steel dowels) as well as the location of the main pressure caused by the applied load. Based on the results, the location of the applied loads contributed greatly to the behaviour of the shear connectors, moment resistance capacity and failure mechanism of the slabs. In addition, horizontal dowels provided greater bond between concrete and steel in comparison to WWSS. © 2021 Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.