Use of bolted shear connectors in composite construction

[EN] Composite beam incorporated steel profiled decking has been extensively used for multi-storey buildings and is now one of the most efficient and economic form of flooring systems. However, the current composite flooring system is not demountable and would require extensive cutting on site during demolition, and the opportunity to reuse the steel components is lost even though these components could be salvaged and recycled. This paper presents the use of high strength bolts as shear connectors in composite construction, the shear behaviour and failure modes were observed and analysed through a series of push-off tests and numerical simulation. The results highlighted the structural behaviour of three different demountable shear connection forms in which continuous slabs or un-continuous slabs were used. Numerical models were validated against experimental observation. Both experimental and numerical results support the high strength bolts used as demountable shear connectors and lead to a better understanding to the behaviour of this form of shear connectors.The research leading to these results is part of a joint project of the Steel Construction Institute, the University of Luxembourg, the University of Bradford, the Lindab SA, the Tata Steel Ijmuiden BV, the Stichting Bouwen Met Staal, the Technical University of Delft and the AEC3 Ltd. The funding was received from the European Commission: Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS-2015, RPJ, 710040).Dai, X.; Lam, D.; Sheehan, T.; Yang, J.; Zhou, K. (2018). Use of bolted shear connectors in composite construction. En Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Steel-Concrete Composite Structures. ASCCS 2018. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 475-482. https://doi.org/10.4995/ASCCS2018.2018.703947548