SHEAR-TENSION INTERACTION STRENGTH OF J-HOOK CONNECTORS IN STEEL-CONCRETE-STEEL SANDWICH STRUCTURE

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich structure with ultra-lightweight cement composite core has been developed and proposed for applications in offshore, bridge and building constructions. A new form of J-hook connector is introduced to bond the steel face plates and cement composite core to form an integrated unit which is capable of resisting extreme loads. Design formulae were proposed to predict the shear, tension, and their interaction resistances of J-hook connectors. Thirty push-out tests and eighteen tensile tests were carried out on steel-concrete-steel sandwich plates with J-hook connectors embedded in different kinds of concrete to determine their shear and tension resistance, respectively. Nonlinear finite element (FE) model was also developed to predict the load-slip and ultimate behavior of J-hook connectors under combined shear and tensile loads. Finally, the design formulae were validated by comparing the predicted results with those obtained from tests and FE analyses. The formulae may be used to evaluate the tension, shear, and shear-tension interaction resistances of the J-hook connectors in steel-concrete-steel sandwich composite structures.