Constitutive laws for transferred shear force and relative displacement relationship of shear connector in steel-concrete sandwich beam

Transferred shear force and relative displacement relationships of the shear connector are affected by various factors such as the height, thickness and shape of the shear connector, concrete strength, and the thickness of the base steel plate where the shear connectors were attached. This study investigates the relationship between transferred shear force and relative displacement of the shear connector in steel-concrete sandwich beam under two-point loading system. In order to explain the transferred shear force-relative displacement relationship of the shear connector, the experimental results were approached with the beam on the elastic foundation theory. It was observed that the modulus of the foundation, k was constant in the case of different height of shear connector and proportional to the compressive strength of the concrete. The relative displacement of the shear connector linearly increases with increase in transferred shear force until a sudden decrease of the k and equivalent stiffness of the shear connector starts at a transferred shear force, Q(c).