Testing and Numerical Modelling of Steel-Concrete-Steel with Stud Bolts Connectors Subject to Push-Out Loading

Abstract

Steel-concrete-steel (SCS) sandwich panels are composed of two steel plates with low thicknesses and high densities and strengths and one thick layer between both plates with low strength and density known as core that is composed of concrete. Cohesive material-epoxy resin or shear connectors are usually applied in order to connect the plates to the concrete core. SCS sandwich composites are being developed so they can be utilized in offshore structures and buildings. Stud bolt is one of the shear connectors and their interlayer shear behavior is examined in the present study. In order to inspect the effect of parameters on interlayer shear behavior of steel-concrete-steel sandwich structure with stud bolt connectors, push-out test is performed under progressive loading. Pursuant to the tests performed, relations are proposed to predict ultimate shear strength and load-slip behavior of samples with stud bolt shear connectors. Consequently, numerical model of push-out test is presented on the basic component of Steel-Concrete-Steel sandwich structure (SCS) with stud bolt connectors. The results indicated that finite element model is consistent with test results applying mass scaling in Explicit Solver with a suitable analysis speed. Applying the regression analysis on the results of 80 numerical models of push-out test,a relation was proposed for shear strength of push-out samples with stud bolt connectors.