Effect of Partial Shear Interaction in Steel Concrete Composite Girders

Abstract

Steel concrete composite (SCC) structural system has been commonly used both in the buildings and in the bridges because of the advantages it associates when compared to its counterparts such as RC and steel structures. A typical SCC girder consists of a concrete element placed over a steel element. The effectiveness of this composite system is characterized by the type of connection that exists between the two connecting elements. More commonly shear stud connectors are used to connect the two elements. If the shear studs are infinitely rigid, then it brings about full composite action, on the contrary there is no composite action if the studs are not used, between the two connecting elements. It has been observed that generally the composite action exists somewhere between the full composite action and the no composite action, and is called the partial composite action or the partial interaction. More often the partial composite action is overlooked during the design of SCC girders, and the girder is designed assuming that there exists full composite action, because of the complexities in the analysis incorporating the partial composite action. This might lead to the serviceability issues in the SCC girders. Keeping this in mind the present work has been carried out to understand the significance of the partial interaction in SCC girders. In the present work, a comparative study has been made between the available analytical model and the numerical model. Numerical modeling is performed by using commercially available tool such as SAP2000. The main objective of this work is to bring out the relative significance of the partial interaction with respect to the full composite action, with the help of parametric study. Here, the parametric study has been carried by considering various design parameters, such as, span length, degree of shear connection, cross section geometry of steel girder and concrete slab. It is observed that there is significant increase in deformations of the SCC girder, on account of the partial interaction. The results of the numerical model and the analytical model are in good agreement.