Effective widths of composite beams with ribbed metal deck

Abstract

The effective width of the concrete slab of a composite beam is used in the determination of its moment resistance and service load moment for the purposes of structural design of the composite beam. It is usually assumed that the same effective width of the concrete slab may be used for both ultimate strength and elastic stage calculations.This paper presents the results of an analytical investigation of the variation of the effective width of composite beams and ribbed slabs formed by ribbed metal deck in both the elastic and inelastic stages and at ultimate load. A layered finite element method is used to model the composite beam. The influence of four variables on the effective width of the composite beams was studied, namely, type of loading, beam span to actual concrete slab width, ultimate compressive strength of the concrete, and steel beam size.It was found that the effect of the compressive strength of the concrete and the size of the steel beam have negligible influence on the effective width of the concrete slab. The effective width of the slab at ultimate load is of the order of 4% larger than that in the elastic range.The effective width used for the design of composite beams under a uniformly distributed load, which is the practical loading in most cases, is significantly different from that which should be used for any other type of loading.