Numerical studies on the behavior of cold‐formed double‐channel shear connector

Abstract

The longitudinal shear forces are transferred through mechanical shear connectors at the steel beams and concrete slab intersection in composite beams. The shear connectors can be directly welded to the hot rolled steel beam, which is difficult in thin, cold‐formed steel beams. Thus, a cold‐formed double‐channel shear connector is proposed, and its suitability is investigated in this study. The double channel shear connector is a channel shaped shear connector formed from a flat plat and it is mounted on the flange of steel beam in pairs. The finite element model of the experimental Pushout test assembly was developed with the equivalent numerical constraints and interaction commands in a finite element software (ABAQUS). The developed models were fed with initial imperfection, load slip response, and material nonlinearity to achieve the proper experiment simulation. Initially, the developed models were validated against nine experimental test data reported by authors in the previous study. The parametric study was conducted to assess the behavior of cold‐formed channel shear connectors. The key parameters adopted in this study are the length of the shear connector, the grade of concrete and the grade and thickness of the steel connector. Three common failure patterns were witnessed among 107 numerical models. In this study, the factors influencing the control of failure patterns are presented, along with the factors influencing the shear connector's ultimate capacity.