Numerical analysis of the effect of partial interaction in the evaluation of the effective width of composite beams

Abstract

Most of the engineering problems involving structural elements of steel-concrete composite beam type are approximations of the structural problem involving concrete plates connected by connectors to steel beams. Technical standards allow the replacement of the concrete plate element by a beam element by adopting a reduction in the width of the plate element known as effective width. The effective width is obtained, in most technical norms, taking into account only the parameters of beam span length and distance between adjacent beams. Numerical and experimental works found in the literature show that this effective width depends on several other parameters, such as the width and thickness of the concrete slab, and the type of loading. The objective of this work is to verify the influence of the partial interaction in the evaluation of the effective width of composite beams formed by a concrete slab connected to a steel beam with deformable connection, being used in numerical simulation three types of finite elements: a plate element for nonlinear analysis of the concrete slab; a bar element for non-linear analysis of beams with cross-section defined by a polygon; and an interface element which connects the plate and beam elements, simulating the deformation effect of the shear connectors. In the studied examples, it was found that the reduction of the shear connection stiffness at the interface between the concrete slab and the steel beam leads to a decrease in the shear lag effect and, consequently, makes the effective width of the concrete slab closer to the its real width. In another example, curves are constructed to define the effective width of a composite beam with medium stiffness. Considering maximum stresses and maximum displacements, these curves are obtained by forcing the equivalence of the approximate model with the model closest to the real problem.

Numerical formulation for nonlinear analysis of concrete and steel shells with deformable connections

“…These include, for example, different mechanical properties and independent stress-strain relation-ships. For other characteristics and more details of the flat shell element, consult Huang et al (1999Huang et al ( , 2003aHuang et al ( , 2003b and Silva and Dias (2018a).…”

“…In the definition of the internal force vector and tangent stiffness matrix, it is assumed that the displacements and rotations have quadratic variations along the element and can be written in terms of the nodal displacements. For details on how to obtain the numerical formulation of this element, consult Silva and Dias (2018a).…”

Numerical assessment of effective width in steel-concrete composite box girder bridges

“…These elements were pre-dimensioned according to the recommendations of AASHTO (2017). Furthermore, research has shown that the main parameters that influence the effective width are the slab height, span length, load type and application, the distance between beams and webs in the cross section and the steel-concrete interaction degree (Castro et al, 2007;Dezi et al, 2006;Gara et al, 2011;Hu et al, 2009;Reginato et al, 2018;Silva and Dias, 2018;Yuan et al, 2016;Zhu et al, 2015). Therefore, the parametric analysis variables were:…”

“…The shear lag effect has been investigated by several authors who developed equations for determining the effective width of slabs in steel-concrete composite beams (Abbu et al, 2014; Amadio and Fragiacomo, 2002; Castro et al, 2007; Gara et al, 2011b; Lasheen et al, 2018; Reginato et al, 2018; Silva and Dias, 2018; Yuan et al, 2016; Zhu et al, 2015). It is worth mentioning the work of Abbu, Ekmekyapar and Ozakça (2014) that addressed steel-concrete composite bridges specifically in the box section configuration; and the research by Yuan et al (2016) and Zhu et al (2015), who investigated steel-concrete composite bridges and proposed expressions to determine the effective width.…”

Effective width of steel-concrete composite box girder bridges: a review and method comparison

“…Acta Scientiarum. Technology, v. 46, e64764, 2024 In the context of steel-concrete composite bridges, the effective width is a widely studied topic (Dezi, Gara, & Leoni, 2003;Amadio, Fedrigo, Fragiacomo, & Macorini, 2004;Chiewanichakorn, Aref, Chen, & Ahn, 2004;Macorini, Fragiacomo, Amadio, & Izzuddin, 2006;Gara, Leoni, & Dezi, 2009;Gara, Ranz i, & Leoni, 2011;Salama & Nassif, 2011;Wang & Nie, 2015;Zhu, Nie, Li, & Ji, 2015a;Galuppi & Royer -Carfagni, 2016;Yuan, Deng, Yang, Weijian, & Zhenggeng, 2016a;Reginato, Tamayo, & Morsch, 2018;Lasheen, Shaat, & Khalil, 2018;Silva, & Dias, 2018;Nicoletti et al, 2021a;2021b). One of the justifications for the high number of researches is the fact that the effective width is a parameter that directly influences the design of these structures.…”