Reliability-Based Structural Safety Evaluation of Concrete-Steel Composite Beams According to Euro Code 4

Abstract

Uncertainties are always present in Analysis and design of Engineering systems, but conventional approach simplify the problem by considering the uncertain parameters to be deterministic in which are not and accounted for the uncertainties through the use of empirical safety factors which are derived based on experience. In this study, reliability analysis of Concrete-Steel Composite Beams was carried According to Euro code using First Order Reliability Method (FORM) through a developed matlab programme, four failure mode considered are bending, shear, deflection and shear connectors capacity, by considering loads and resistances variables of the sections in the limit state equations to be random. The analysis was carried out by varying some parameters while keeping other parameters constant, and this is to study the effects of the parameters against one another. The safety index was found to be affected by parameters like steel yield strength concrete strength, effective width of the slab, web thickness, ultimate tensile strength, shank diameter of the shear connectors, Load ratio, live load and span of the beam. From the failure mode considered, Euro code 4 seems to be conservative with respect to shear, safe with respect to deflection, satisfactory to bending, while shear studs capacity was at critical.