Numerical study of a new steel and concrete composite beam with an adhesive joint

In traditional composite beam, metal shear studs are used as connectors between steel beam and concrete slab. On the other hand, although adhesive has been considered for many classes of connecting components, the research work on the use of the adhesive bonding in the steel and concrete composite beam has scarcely ever been reported. This paper studies the mechanical behaviors and failure process of a new steel and concrete composite beam with an adhesive bonding instead of traditional metal connectors with finite element method. (FEM) A three-dimensional finite element model has been developed to investigate the nonlinear mechanical behaviors of this composite beam over the entire loading range up to failure. The deflection and strain results predicted by finite element model are verified by the experimental data. Based on the results presented in this paper, it is concluded that P three major reasons for the failure of the composite beam involve the cracking of the concrete by the local tensile stress, the crushing of the concrete by the compressive stress and the extensive yielding of the steel beam under the global bending moment.