Experimental and theoretical analysis of flexural performance for EPCFA-CSP novel composite structure

Abstract

The article proposes a novel composite structure, namely the Elastic Polyurethane Coal Fly Ash Corrugated Steel Plate (EPCFA-CSP). One specimen consisting solely of corrugated steel plate and seven composite structure specimens were designed to investigate the bending behavior of the EPCFA-CSP composite structure through four-point bending tests. The results indicate that incorporating mushroom-shaped steel pin shear keys into the combination of EPCFA and CSP yields the most favorable effect. With an increase in structural layer thickness from 30 mm to 50 mm, when the mushroom-shaped steel pin shear key contributes to the stress distribution within the composite structure, both bending stiffness and ultimate load of the composite structure specimen increases by 150.35 % and 63.93 %, respectively. Specimen EPCFA-(50)-CSP-II achieves a flexural stiffness of 89.40 kN/mm, a cracking load of 187.7 kN, and an ultimate load of 205.4 kN. Finally, based on experimental results, a deflection correction formula considering the reduction factor due to combination effects was derived to correct deflections at characteristic points accurately. This formula is applicable at approximately 0.6 times the ultimate load, and calculations using this formula yield ratios between calculated deflections and experimental deflections ranging from 0.88 to 0.97. This demonstrates its effectiveness in correcting deflections and provides valuable insights for designing related composite structures.