Review of stud shear resistance prediction in steel-concrete composite beams

In steel-concrete composite beams, longitudinal shear forces are transferred across steel flange-concrete slab interface by means of shear connectors. The connector behavior is highly non-linear and involves several complex mechanisms. The design resistance and stiffness of composite beams depends on the shear connection behavior and the accuracy in the connector resistance prediction is essential. However determining the stud shear resistance is not an easy process: analytical methods do not give an adequate response to this problem and it is therefore necessary to use experimental methods. This paper present a summary of the main procedures to predict the resistance of the stud shear connectors embedded in solid slab, and stud shear connectors in composite slab using profiled steel sheeting with rib perpendicular to steel beam. A large number of experimental studies on the behavior of stud shear connectors and reported in the literature are also summarized. A comparison of the stud shear resistance prediction using six reference codes (AISC, AASHTO, Eurocode-4, GB50017, JSCE and AS-2327.1) and other procedures reported in the literature against experimental results is presented. From this exercise, it is concluded that there are still inaccuracies in the prediction of stud shear resistance in all analysed procedures and that improvements are needed.