Development of prefabricated timber-concrete composite floors

Timber-concrete composite structures are coming to be very important in housing sector. They have many advantages compared to traditional timber floors and are widely used as an effective method for refurbishment of existing timber floors. Current research at CTU is focused on industrial production of prefabricated timber-concrete panels and their easy and quick assembly, in order to reduce the total cost of production, transport and assembly. A new shear connector was developed for those purposes. It is a punched metal plate fastener with double-sided teeth and omitted area nearby contact of timber and concrete. Direct shear tests were performed on four series of punched metal plate fasteners with different geometrical properties. Results of these tests and determination of slip modules K-ser and K-u is presented in this paper.