Finite element modelling of steel-concrete composite beams with profiled steel sheeting

Steel-concrete composite beams have been widely used in steel framed buildings, where composite slabs are connected to steel beams by headed shear studs welded through profiled metal decking to ensure full/partial composite action between the composite slab and the steel beam. For such composite beams, there are complex interactions between different components, leading to different failure modes. Since full-scale experiments of composite beams are very expensive, finite element (FE) modelling can be a viable alternative to investigate the fundamental behaviour of composite beams. In general, previous FE models developed have adopted various assumptions to simplify the modelling of some complex interactions such as the interaction between the shear studs and concrete. Accordingly, those FE models have limitations to capture certain types of failure modes. To address this issue, a refined FE model for composite beams with profiled steel sheeting is developed in this paper. Realistic interaction between different components has been considered in the FE modelling, along with fracture of shear studs and profiled steel sheeting and concrete damage. The developed FE model successfully captured different types of failure modes of composite beams, such as shear failure of the studs, concrete crushing failure, steel beam failure and rib shear failure. Finally, a method to determine shear force versus slip behaviour of shear studs in the composite beams is introduced based on numerical modelling