Experimental study on in-plane capacities of composite steel-concrete floor

In steel frame structures, composite floor is an important element that plays a significant role in contributing to lateral stability. Its working role in the in-plane action is to transfer lateral loads, such as wind loads and seismic loads, to vertical load-resisting members. Such load transferring process depends on the in-plane capacities of the floor, which can be reduced after being subjected to explosion. However, the remaining capacities have not been previously studied yet in the literature. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the initial and residual in-plane capacities of the composite steel-concrete floor after being subjected to explosion, which was made within the RFCS research project BASIS: "Blast Action on Structures In Steel". Large-scale experimental tests on four composite floor specimens, consisting of a reinforced concrete panel casted on a profile steel sheet Comflor, are performed to determine the in-plane capacities. The initial damaging of the composite floor caused by the explosion is reproduced by a flexural test using a quasi-static loading. In the in-plane shear tests, special connections between the rigid frames of the shear rig and the embedded bolts in the concrete are used to ensure a good transferring of the applied load. The results from this experimental study are the first insights on the behavior of the composite floor with and without initial pre-damaging. They can also be useful for a preliminary recommendation to estimate residual in-plane capacities ( stiffness and resistance) of the composite floor after being subjected explosion.