Experimental investigation on flexural behaviour of HSS stud connected steel-concrete composite girders

In this paper, experimental investigations on high strength steel (HSS) stud connected steel-concrete composite (SCC) girders to understand the effect of shear connector density on their flexural behaviour is presented. SCC girder specimens were designed for three different shear capacities (100%, 85%, and 70%), by varying the number of stud connectors in the shear span. Three SCC girder specimens were tested under monotonic/quasi-static loading, while three similar girder specimens were subjected to non-reversal cyclic loading under simply supported end conditions. Details of casting the specimens, experimental set-up, and method of testing, instrumentation for the measurement of deflection, interface-slip and strain are discussed. It is found that SCC girder specimen designed for full shear capacity exhibits interface slip for loads beyond 25% of the ultimate load capacity. Specimens with lesser degree of shear connection show lower values of load at initiation of slip. Very good ductility is exhibited by all the HSS stud connected SCC girder specimens. It is observed that the ultimate moment of resistance as well as ductility gets reduced for HSS stud connected SCC girder with reduction in stud shear connector density. Efficiency factor indicating the effectiveness of high strength stud connectors in resisting interface forces is estimated to be 0.8 from the analysis. Failure mode is primarily flexure with fracturing of stud connectors and characterised by flexural cracking and crushing of concrete at top in the pure bending region. Local buckling in the top flange of steel beam was also observed at the loads near to failure, which is influenced by spacing of studs and top flange thickness of rolled steel section. One of the recommendations is that the ultimate load capacity can be limited to 1.5 times the plastic moment capacity of the section such that the post peak load reduction is kept within limits. Load-deflection behaviour for monotonic tests compared well with the envelope of load-deflection curves for cyclic tests. It is concluded from the experimental investigations that use of HSS studs will reduce their numbers for given loading, which is advantageous in case of long spans. Buckling of top flange of rolled section is observed at failure stage. Provision of lips in the top flange is suggested to avoid this buckling. This is possible in case of longer spans, where normally built-up sections are used.