Experimental Investigation of new thin-walled perfobond shear connectors

Luiz Alberto Araújo de Seixas Leal¹; Eduardo de Miranda Batista¹

¹ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2017-0662

Resumo

Composite steel and concrete constructions is being frequently specified in order to guarantee optimized material consumption, higher resistance capacity and increase of flexural stiffness for structural components. Several scientific researches seek alternatives which enables an efficient interaction between steel and concrete and, at same time, make possible the exploitation of the best characteristics associated with both materials. In this context, the main objective of this study is to present a new alternative for shear connectors, conceived to ensure composite action in an innovative structural system, composed by a thin-walled steel truss and one-way concrete slab, in process of development aided by experimental and computational investigation. The solution that would be presented consists of a Thin-Walled Perfobond (TWP) ribs, which is made up by two plates with 1,25 mm nominal thickness each and attached to the referred truss by self-drilling screws. Although the perfobond is very usual for conventional steel beams (generally composed by compact sections), its application on cold-formed profiles has yet to be exploited. It is important to point out that the shear connectors were conceived to provide a restraint mechanism for vertical and horizontal relative displacement between steel beam and concrete slab. A set of results are also presented related to preliminary experimental push-out tests, according to recommedations estabilished by Eurocode 4, performed in Structures Laboratory (LABEST) of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ) involving perfobond shear connectors. The results indicate important aspects regarding structural behavior of the referred component in terms of resistance capacity and relative displacements between steel and concrete.

Palavras-chave: Perfobond; Thin-Walled Perfobond; Composite structural systems; Push-out tests; shear connector