Flexural Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Composite Floor Infilled with Desert Sand Foamed Concrete

Abstract

Desert sand foamed concrete (DSFC), which offers advantages, such as fire resistance, sound insulation, construction convenience, and environmental benefits, has not been used in cold-formed steel (CFS) composite floors. In this study, four full-scale specimens were designed and tested under four-point bending to investigate the effect of foamed concrete filling and holes. The load–deflection curves and strain distribution at mid-span were measured and analyzed. The experimental results indicated that the failure modes of the CFS composite floors were local buckling at the top flange for specimens without holes and tensile failure at the bottom flange for specimens with holes, respectively, which differed from the web crippling observed in non-composite floors. Moreover, due to the presence of foamed concrete, the flexural stiffness was significantly improved by 117.6% and 73.6% for the specimens without holes and with holes, respectively, while ultimate capacity increased by 224.9% and 121.8%, respectively. Through the nonlinear finite element models validated against experimental results, it was found that the flexural behavior was improved with the increase in CFS thickness and foamed concrete strength. The impact of the holes was not obvious for specimens infilled with holes.