Flexural behavior of prestressed hybrid wide flange beams with hollowed steel webs

Abstract

In this study, experiments were conducted to evaluate the flexural performance of prestressed hybrid wide flange (PHWF) beams with hollowed steel webs. A total of four PHWF beams were fabricated, where the width and spacing of the steel webs and the presence of cast-in-place (CIP) concrete were set as the main test parameters, and their flexural behavior and crack patterns, and the longitudinal strain distribution in a section with respect to the width and spacing of the steel webs were analyzed in detail. The experiment results showed that, as the ratio of the width to the spacing of the steel webs decreased, the flexural stiffness and strength of the PHWF beams without CIP concrete decreased. In addition, in the case of composite PHWF beam with CIP concrete, fully composite behavior between the precast concrete and the CIP concrete was achieved through the embedded steel member. Finite element analyses were performed for the PHWF beams considering the bond properties between the hollowed steel webs and concrete, and nonlinear flexural analyses were also conducted reflecting the pre-compressive strains introduced only into the bottom flange. From the comparison of the test and analysis results, it was confirmed that the analysis models proposed in this study well evaluated the flexural behavior of PHWF beams with and without CIP concrete.