Flexural performance of SCSP-concrete composite structures with equidistant transverse rebar

Abstract

To improve the flexural performance of corrugated steel plate (CSP)-concrete composite structures, composite shear connectors composed of transverse rebar and longitudinal shear connectors are widely used. This study investigated the effect of equidistant transverse rebar on the flexural performance of sinusoidal corrugated steel plate (SCSP) and its composite structure. For a comparative study, specimens of SCSP-concrete composite structure and SCSP-concrete composite structure with equidistant transverse rebar were fabricated and tested under the same test conditions. The results showed that the ultimate load of the SCSP-concrete composite structure with equidistant transverse rebar increased by 58.71 %, while the deflection decreased by 19.19 %. Based on the energy principles, equivalent properties of SCSP with equidistant transverse rebar have been derived. The finite element (FE) analyses adopted the corrugated and orthotropic plate models to simulate SCSP and SCSP with equidistant transverse rebar. The orthotropic plate models corresponding to the SCSP with equidistant transverse rebar were established by using the proposed equivalent properties. The FE analysis results of the corrugated plate models and the orthotropic plate models are consistent, proving that the use of equidistant transverse rebar improves the flexural performance of the SCSP. The FE analysis results of the composite structure modeled using the corrugated plate models are consistent with the test results. For the SCSP-concrete composite structure with equidistant transverse rebar, the FE analysis results of the orthotropic plate-concrete composite structure are different from those of the composite structure using the corrugated plate model. This is because the stiffness of the orthotropic plate model is the same as that of the corrugated plate model, but the orthotropic plate-concrete composite structure does not have equidistant transverse rebar, resulting in lower longitudinal shear resistance compared to the composite structure using the corrugated plate model. At the initial loading stage, the equidistant transverse rebar increased the stiffness of the SCSP in the composite structure and the longitudinal shear resistance between SCSP and concrete when the load increased. When using transverse rebar with a doubled cross-sectional area and increasing the usage of transverse rebar by two times, the ultimate load of the composite structure increases by 1.77 %, and the deflection decreases by 21.68 %. When the arrangement spacing of rebar is halved and the usage of transverse rebar is doubled, the ultimate load of the composite structure increases by 7.56 %, and the deflection decreases by 23.8 %.