Steel — Concrete Composite Construction with Precast Concrete Hollow Core Floor

Abstract

Precast concrete hollow core floor units (hcu) are widely used in all types of multistorey steel framed buildings where they bear onto the top flanges of universal beams. The steel beam is normally designed in bending, in isolation from the concrete slab, and no account is taken of the composite beam action available with the precast units. A program of combined experimental and numerical studies was undertaken that aimed at deciding on a suitable approach for the design of composite steel beams that utilize precast concrete hollow core slabs. The results show that the precast slabs may be used compositely with the steel beams in order to increase both flexural strength and stiffness at virtually no extra cost, except for the headed shear studs. For typical geometry and serial sizes, the composite beams were found to be twice as strong and three times as stiff as the equivalent isolated steel beam. The failure mode was ductile, and may have been controlled by the correct use of small quantities of tie steel and insitu infill concrete placed between the precast units.