• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.1132-1141
• /
• 2019

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures have important advantages over conventional concrete structures, however, bond-slip between the steel plate and concrete may lead to a loss of composite action, resulting in a reduction of stiffness and fatigue life of SCS sandwich structures. Due to the inaccessibility and invisibility of the interface, the interfacial performance monitoring and debonding detection using traditional measurement methods, such as relative displacement between the steel plate and core concrete, have proved challenging. In this work, two methods using piezoelectric transducers are proposed to detect the bond-slip between steel plate and core concrete during the test of the beam. The first one is acoustic emission (AE) method, which can detect the dynamic process of bond-slip. AE signals can be detected when initial micro cracks form and indicate the damage severity, types and locations. The second is electromechanical impedance (EMI) method, which can be used to evaluate the damage due to bond-slip through comparing with the reference data in static state, even if the bond-slip is invisible and suspends. In this work, the experiment is implemented to demonstrate the bond-slip monitoring using above methods. Experimental results and further analysis show the validity and unique advantage of the proposed methods.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.783-794
• /
• 2020

Steel-concrete-steel sandwich composite wall is composed of two external steel plates and infilled concrete core. Internal mechanical connectors are used to enhance the composite action between the two materials. In this paper, the compressive behavior of a novel sandwich composite wall was studied. The steel trusses were applied to connect the steel plates to the concrete core. Three short specimens with different truss spacings were tested under compressive loading. The boundary columns were not included. It was found that the failure of walls started from the buckling of steel plates and followed by the crushing of concrete. Global instability was not observed. It was also observed that the truss spacing has great influence on ultimate strength, buckling stress, ductility, strength index, lateral deflection, and strain distribution. Three modern codes were introduced to calculate the capacity of walls. The comparisons between test results and code predictions show that AISC 360 provides significant underestimations while Eurocode 4 and CECS 159 offer overestimated predictions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.1001-1021
• /
• 2015

Ultra-lightweight cement composite (ULCC) with a compressive strength of 60 MPa and density of $1,450kg/m^3$ has been developed and used in the steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures. This paper investigates the structural performances of SCS sandwich composite beams with ULCC as filled material. Overlapped headed shear studs were used to provide shear and tensile bond between the face plate and the lightweight core. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite element (FE) model was developed for the ultimate strength analysis of such SCS sandwich composite beams. The accuracy of the FE analysis was established by comparing the predicted results with the quasi-static tests on the SCS sandwich beams. The FE model was also applied to the nonlinear analysis on curved SCS sandwich beam and shells and the SCS sandwich beams with J-hook connectors and different concrete core including ULCC, lightweight concrete (LWC) and normal weight concrete (NWC). Validations were also carried out to check the accuracy of the FE analysis on the SCS sandwich beams with J-hook connectors and curved SCS sandwich structure. Finally, recommended FE analysis procedures were given.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.461-477
• /
• 2016

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich composite wall has been proposed for building and offshore constructions. An ultra-lightweight cement composite with density1380 kg/m3 and compressive strength up to 60 MPa is used as core material and inter-locking J-hook connectors are welded on the steel face plates to achieve the composite action. This paper presents the numerical models using nonlinear finite element analysis to investigate the load displacement behavior of SCS sandwich walls subjected to axial compression. The results obtained from finite element analysis are verified against the test results to establish its accuracy in predicting load-displacement curves, maximum resistance and failure modes of the sandwich walls. The studies show that the inter-locking J-hook connectors are subjected to tension force due to the lateral expansion of cement composite core under compression. This signifies the important role of the interlocking effect of J-hook connectors in preventing tensile separation of the steel face plates so that the local buckling of steel face plates is prevented.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.425-438
• /
• 2013

A new-styrofoam-concrete composite sandwich slab with function of heat insulation is designed. Four full-scale simply supported composite sandwich slabs with different shear connectors are tested. Parameters under study are the thickness of the concrete, the height of profiled steel sheeting, the influence of shear connectors including the steel bars and self-drilling screws. Experimental results showing that four specimens mainly failed in bending failure mode; the shear connectors can limit the longitudinal slippery between the steel profiled sheeting and the concrete effectively and thus guarantee the good composite action and cooperative behavior of two materials. The ultimate sagging bending resistance can be determined based on plastic theory. This new composite sandwich slab has high sagging bending resistance and good ductility. Additionally, these test results help the design and application of this new type of composite sandwich slab.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.159-169
• /
• 2020

Sandwich composite wall consists of concrete core attached by two external steel faceplates. It combines the advantage of steel and concrete. The appropriate composite action between steel faceplate and concrete core is achieved by using adequate mechanical connectors. This research studied the compressive behavior of the sandwich composite walls using steel trusses to bond the steel faceplates to concrete infill. Four short specimens with different wall width and thickness of steel faceplate were designed and tested under axial compression. The test results were comprehensively evaluated in terms of failure modes, load versus axial and lateral deformation responses, resistance, stiffness, ductility, strength index, and strain distribution. The test results showed that all specimens exhibited high resistance and good ductility. Truss connectors offer better restraint to walls with thinner faceplates and smaller wall width. In addition, increasing faceplate thickness is more effective in improving the ultimate resistance and axial stiffness of the wall.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.289-306
• /
• 2003

A series of tests was conducted to study the behaviour of steel-composite sandwich beams under low velocity hard impact. Damage characteristic and performance of sandwich beams with different spacing of shear connector were evaluated under impact loading. Thin steel plates were used as top and bottom skins of the sandwich beams and plain concrete was used as the core material. Shear connectors were provided by welding of angle sections on steel plates. The sandwich beams were impacted at their midpoint by a hemi-spherical nose shaped projectile dropped from various heights. Strains on steel plates were measured to study the effects of impact velocity or impact momentum on the performance of sandwich beams. Spacing of shear connectors is found to have significant effects on the impact response of the beams.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
• /
• 2000.10a
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2000

A huge offshore structures such as immersed tunnel, ice-resisting wall are continuously subjected to large force from water pressure, wave action and impact loads. Composite steel-concrete structure of sandwich system has profitable advantages for a huge offshore structures. This composite structures should exhibit a high degree of strength and ductility, because of concrete confining effect and the property of steel plate. Therefore, it endures large deformation and absorbs a great deal of energy until failure. In this study, nonlinear analysis for composite steel-concrete structure of sandwich system was carried out, and certify the effects of various parameters, elastic·plastic behavior characteristic, load-carrying and failure mechanism.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.123-133
• /
• 2018

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich composite structure with corrugated-strip connectors (CSC) has the potential to be used in buildings and offshore structures. In this structure, CSCs are used to bond steel face plates and concrete. To overcome executive problems, in the proposed system by the authors, shear connectors are one end welded as double skin composites. Hence, this system double skin with corrugated-strip connectors (DSCS) is named. In this paper, finite element model (FEM) of push-out test was presented for the basic component of DSCS. ABAQUS/Explicit solver in ABAQUS was used due to the geometrical complexity of the model, especially in the interaction of the shear connectors with concrete. In order that the explicit analysis has a quasi-static behavior with a proper approximation, the kinetic energy (ALLKE) did not exceed 5% to 10% of the internal energy (ALLIE) using mass-scaling. The FE analysis (FEA) was validated against those from the push-out tests in the previous work of the authors published in this journal. By comparing load-slip curves and failure modes, FEMs with suitable analysis speed were consistent with test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.907-927
• /
• 2014

Ultra-lightweight cement composite (ULCC) with a compressive strength of 60 MPa and density of $1450kg/m^3$ has been developed and used in the steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structures. ULCC was adopted as the core material in the SCS sandwich composite beams to reduce the overall structural weight. Headed shear studs working in pairs with overlapped lengths were used to achieve composite action between the core material and steel face plates. Nine quasi-static tests on this type of SCS sandwich composite beams were carried out to evaluate their ultimate strength performances. Different parameters influencing the ultimate strength of the SCS sandwich composite beams were studied and discussed. Design equations were developed to predict the ultimate resistance of the cross section due to pure bending, pure shear and combined action between shear and moment. Effective stiffness of the sandwich composite beam section is also derived to predict the elastic deflection under service load. Finally, the design equations were validated by the test results.