• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.419-428
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• 2024

Prefabricated partially-encased composite (PEC) structural component is widely used in construction industry due to its superior structural performance and easy assembly characteristic. However, the solid web in traditional PEC components tends to split concrete into two halves, thus potentially reduces structural integrity and requires double concrete pouring. To overcome the above disadvantages, a new PEC beam with open-web π-shaped steel is proposed in this paper. Four open-web PEC beams with varying sectional height, flange thickness and web void rate were constructed and tested under flexural loads. During experimental tests, all beams exhibited typical flexural failure modes with strong moment capacities and excellent ductility. Owing to the unique construction form of web opening, steel-concrete bonding properties were enhanced and very small relative steel-concrete slips were observed. Experimental results also showed that the flexural capacity of such PEC beams increased with the increase of the sectional height and flange thickness, while was not affected by the web void rate. At last, a flexural capacity formula of the open-web PEC beam was proposed based on the whole section plastic rule. The formula results agreed well with experimental results.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.311-321
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• 2022

The interfacial bond strength of partially encased composite (PEC) structure tends to 0, therefore, the cast-in-place concrete theoretically cannot embody better composite effect than the fabricated structure. A total of 12 specimens were designed and experimented to investigate the energy dissipation and damage of fabricated PEC beam through unidirectional cyclic loading test. Because the concrete on both sides of the web was relatively independent, some specimens showed obvious asymmetric concrete damage, which led to specimens bearing torsion effect at the later stage of loading. Based on the concept of the ideal elastoplastic model of uniaxial tensile steel and the principle of equivalent energy dissipation, the energy dissipation ductility coefficient is proposed, which can simultaneously reflect the deformability and bearing capacity. In view of the whole deformation of the beam, the calculation formula of energy dissipation is put forward, and the energy dissipation and its proportion of shear-bending region and pure bending region are calculated respectively. The energy dissipation efficiency of the pure bending region is significantly higher than that of the shear-bending region. The setting of the screw arbors is conducive to improving the energy dissipation capacity of the specimens. Under the condition of setting the screw arbors and meeting the reasonable shear span ratio, reducing the concrete pouring thickness can lighten the deadweight of the component and improve the comprehensive benefit, and will not have an adverse impact on the energy dissipation capacity of the beam. A damage model is proposed to quantify the damage changes of PEC beams under cyclic load, which can accurately reflect the load damage and deformation damage.