Method for flexural stiffness of steel-concrete composite beams based on stiffness combination coefficients

To investigate the flexural stiffness of the steel-composite beam, the contributions of the concrete slab and steel beam to the stiffness were considered separately. The method for flexural stiffness of the composite beam, considering the stiffness of the concrete slab and steel beam, was proposed in this paper. In addition, finite element models of the composite beams were established and validated. Parametric analyses were carried out to study the effects of different parameters on the neutral axis distance reduction factors of the concrete slab and steel beam. Afterward, the neutral axis distance reduction factors were fitted, and the stiffness combination coefficients of the two parts were solved. Based on the stiffness combination coefficients, the flexural stiffness of the composite beam can be obtained. The proposed method was validated by the tested and analyzed results. The method has a simple form and high accuracy in predicting the flexural stiffness of the steel-concrete composite beam, even though the degree of shear connection is less than 0.5.