Flexural performance and design method of the prefabricated RAC composite slab

Abstract

Prefabricated buildings recently became more prominent, providing significant benefits. Thus the development of prefabricated buildings is a long-term industrial policy in China. In the prefabricated frame structure, the slab is a critical component. In order to provide more and better floor options, the paper proposed a kind of prefabricated concrete composite slab, which adopts the profiled steel sheeting as the prefabricated formwork and the shear connector connected with the surface concrete. Combined with the test results, based on the analysis of load–deflection curves, the finite element software ABAQUS was used for the numerical parametric study of the prefabricated RAC composite slabs. The steel deck thickness, concrete strength, the yield strength of the reinforcements, the tensile reinforcement ratio, the wave height of profiled steel sheeting, and the RCA percentage have carried on the finite element analysis. The results show that the steel deck thickness, the strength of concrete, and the RCA percentage slightly influence the flexural performance of prefabricated RAC composite slabs, the reinforcement yield strength and the wave height of profiled steel sheeting have a certain influence on the flexural performance of prefabricated RAC composite slabs, and the reinforcement ratio of tensile steel bars significantly impacts the flexural performance of the prefabricated RAC composite slabs. In addition, the peak load of specimens increases with the increase of the reinforcement ratio of tensile steel bars. A comparative analysis was carried out between the theoretical calculation results and the experimental or finite element simulation results. And the bending design method of the new prefabricated composite slab was proposed based on the analysis result, including the calculation formula of flexural bearing capacity, short-term stiffness, and the maximum crack width. This study will provide a theoretical basis for designing and engineering the new prefabricated RAC composite slab.