• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제36권3호
• /
• pp.321-337
• /
• 2020

Contemporary design and construction of steel-concrete composite structures employs the use of prefabricated concrete elements and demountable shear connectors in order to reduce the construction time and costs and enable dismantling of elements for their potential reuse at the end of life of buildings. Bolted shear connector with mechanical coupler is presented in this paper. The connector is assembled from mechanical coupler and rebar anchor, embedded in concrete, and steel bolt, used for connecting steel to concrete members. The behaviour and ultimate resistance of bolted connector with mechanical coupler in wide and narrow members were analysed based on push-out tests and FE analyses conducted in Abaqus software, with focus on concrete edge breakout and bolt shear failure modes. The effect of concrete strength, concrete edge distance and diameter and strength of bolts on failure modes and shear resistance was analysed. It was demonstrated that premature failure by breakout of concrete edge occurs when connectors are located 100 mm or closer from the edge in low-strength and normal-strength reinforced concrete. Furthermore, the paper presents a relatively simple model for hand calculation of concrete edge breakout resistance when bolted connectors with mechanical coupler are used. The model is based on the modification of prediction model used for cast-in and post-installed anchors loaded parallel to the edge, by implementing equivalent influence length of connector with variable diameter. Good agreement with test and FE results was obtained, thus confirming the validity of the proposed method.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• 제26권6호
• /
• pp.547-563
• /
• 2020

In this paper, the influence of axial compression ratio on the mechanical properties of new type joints of side span of rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular column-H-type steel beam is studied. Two new types of side-span joints of rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular column-H-type steel beam are designed and quasi-static tests of five new type joints with 1:2 scale reduction ratios are performed. The axial compression ratio of joint JD1 is 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5, and the axial compression ratio of joint JD2 is 0.3 and 0.5. In the joint test, different axial forces were applied to the top of the column according to different axial compression ratios, and low-cyclic reciprocating load was applied on the beam. The stress and strain distribution, beam and column deformation, limit state, failure process, failure mechanism, stiffness degradation, ductile deformation and energy dissipation capacity of the joint were measured and analyzed. The results show that: with the increase of axial compression ratio, the ultimate bearing capacity of the joint decreases slightly, the plastic deformation decreases, and the stiffness and ductility decrease. According to the energy dissipation curve of the specimen, the equivalent damping coefficient also increases with the increase of axial compression ratio in a certain range, indicating that the increase of axial compression ratio can improve the seismic performance of the joint to a certain extent. The finite element method is used to simulate the joint test, and the test results are in good agreement with the simulation results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• 제52권2호
• /
• pp.199-215
• /
• 2024

The Caynarachi Bridge is a 130 m long posttensioned steel-concrete composite bridge built in Peru. The structural performance of this bridge under construction loads is reviewed in this paper using numerical simulation. Hence, a numerical model using shell finite elements to trace its deformational behavior at service conditions is proposed. The geometry and boundary conditions of the superstructure are updated according to the construction schedule. Firstly, the adequacy of the proposed model is validated with the field measurements obtained from the static truck load test. Secondly, the study of other scenarios less explored in research are performed to investigate the effect of some variables on bridge performance such as time effects, sequence of execution of concrete slabs and type of supports conditions at the abutments. The obtained results show that the original sequence of execution of the superstructure better behaves mechanically in relation to the other studied scenarios, yielding smaller stresses at critical cross sections with staging. It is also demonstrated that an improper slab staging may lead to more critical stresses at the studied cross sections and that casting the concrete slab at the negative moment regions first can lead to an optimal design. Also, the long-term displacements can be accurately predicted using an equivalent composite resistance cross section defined by a steel to concrete modulus ratio equal to three. This article gives some insights into the potential shortcomings or advantages of the original design through high-fidelity finite element simulations and reinforces the understating of posttensioned composite bridges with staging.