Flexural stiffness of steel-concrete composite beam under positive moment

This paper investigates the flexural stiffness of simply supported steel-concrete composite I-beams under positive bending moment through combined experimental, numerical, and different standard methods. 14 composite beams are tested for experimental study and parameters including shear connection degree, transverse and longitudinal reinforcement ratios, loading way are also investigated. ABAQUS is employed to establish finite element (FE) models to simulate the flexural behavior of composite beams. The influences of a few key parameters, such as the shear connection degree, stud arrangement, stud diameter, beam length, loading way, on the flexural stiffness is also studied by parametric study. In addition, three widely used standard methods including GB, AISC, and British standards are used to estimate the flexural stiffness of the composite beams. The results are compared with the experimental and numerical results. The findings have provided comprehensive understanding of the flexural stiffness and the modelling of the composite beams. The results also indicate that GB 50017-2003 could provide better results in comparison to the other standards.