Flexural Behavior of Composite Slab

Aims: This study deals with the enhancement of the longitudinal shear interaction at the concrete-profiled steel sheeting interface of composite slab by using shear connectors. The push out and flexural tests are carried out with the same shear connection details.

Place and Duration of Study: The test is carried out in RC laboratory at Faculty of Engineering in Benha, Benha University, Egypt, between May 2014 and March 2015.

Methodology: Fourteen push out specimens with different configurations were built in, of which five specimens with steel deck thickness of 0.7 mm and nine specimens with steel deck thickness of 1.2 mm. For each profiled steel sheeting thickness one specimen is assigned as a control specimen and the other specimens were enhanced with different types of shear connectors such as self-drilling screws with different length and spacing, cold formed members with different shapes (U&C) and different spacing. Eleven large scale specimens with different configurations were prepared. Four specimens were prepared with profiled steel sheeting of 0.7 mm thickness and seven specimens with profiled steel sheeting thickness of 1.2 mm. One control specimen for each profiled steel sheeting thickness was also prepared. The other specimens were enhanced with different types of shear connectors: self-drilling screws with different length and spacing and cold formed members with different shapes (U&C) with different spacing.

Results: The test results show that the failure mode of composite slab can be improved to ductile type and the load carrying capacity can be increased by the presence of the shear connectors. The load performance of the slab is also affected by changing the profiled steel sheeting thickness.