Behaviour of Demountable Shear Connectors in Steel-Concrete Composite Beams

The construction industry in Europe consumes over 70,000 million tonnes of a wide range of materials each year, and generates over 250 million tonnes of constructional waste. Much of the environmental impact of buildings is associated with consumption of resources and generation of waste, therefore reducing waste in construction is becoming a top priority for all the European Governments. Composite structures formed by connecting the concrete slabs to the supporting steel beams have been widely used for many years throughout the world, this cost-effective arrangement for floor system in multi-storey steel frame building structures is responsible for a considerable increase in the load-bearing capacity and stiffness of the steel beams, which has resulted in significant savings in steel weight and construction cost. However, shear connectors are welded through the steel decking and cast into the concrete; this made deconstruction and reuse of the steel components almost impossible. A demountable shear connector is developed to assess its potential and suitability in term of replacing the welded through headed shear studs. Test results shown that these shear connectors can be easily demounted both at working and ultimate load and have a similar capacity to the traditional welded shear connectors. In addition, the new demountable shear connectors process high ductility in comparison with the welded shear connectors and have similar behaviour to the traditional welded headed stud shear connectors. A fnite element is developed to carry out parametric study for this form of shear connector.