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Abstract
INTRODUCTION
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[Wurzer 1997], [Zapfe 2001]). However major differences to existing design are to be
found in the geometrical boundaries of the composite dowel in the CoSFB
application. As the dowel is confined between the steel flanges of the rolled profiles,
only local failure mechanism are supposed to occur. Though, it is unknown whether
the flanges allow for load distribution and transfer from concrete into the steel profile.
Further block failure of the dowel must be avoided. Experience for this particular
case has been drafted from the design of filler beam bridges which do work with
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similar geometrical boundaries in composite action, although the design of this action
is based on empirical knowledge.
Consequently it has been decided to further investigate in
- the global behaviour of the composite slim-floor beam with special focus on the
shear force capacity, effective width of the concrete chord, the deflection and
vibration behavior by 2 shear beam tests and 2 long-span beam tests and
- the shear connection characteristics of the concrete dowels in the composite slim-
floor beams by 27 Push-Out Tests.
This research campaign is presented in this contribution.
The short-span shear beam tests (S1, S2) have been designed to check the
transferability of test results from push-out tests to beam behavior. One short-span
test was designed with ß = 100% shear connection (S1); the second (S2) was
designed with ß = 50% shear connection, once to produce possible shear connection
or shear block failure and secondly, to later have the possibility to conclude on the
behavior3of the CoSFB system with partial shear connection in case the concrete
dowel provides sufficient ductility. Each shear beam spans 4m from hinged support
to hinged support. Both were 4-point-bending tests (see Figure 4 and Figure 5).
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Fig. 4 – Bending (left photo) and shear (right photo) beam tests at Stuttgart
Shear beam S1, with a full shear connection, had concrete dowels at each 125mm.
Shear beam S2, with a partial shear connection, had the same distance of concrete
dowels, however half of the dowels have been closed by silicone to prevent their
action (see Figure 5). To investigate in the overall structural behavior (load bearing
and deformation behavior) two long span girders (B1, B2) were tested in a 4-point
bending test. The long span bending tests are simple supported beams with 8m span.
For shear beam S2 half of the holes were filled with silicone.
As the effective width of the concrete chord plays an important role for the
bearing capacity of the composite section, the concrete slab width of the test girders
was selected as 2.50m. Figure 6 shows the section of the investigated slim-floor
girder. The tests were executed deflection controlled. During testing, the jacking
force, deflections at ¼ span length and mid-span as well as the slip in these location
and the supports by deflection measurement devices, the strains in the reinforcement
bars of the concrete dowels as well as the stirrups by strain gauges and the strains in
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the concrete over the width of the concrete chord by strain transducers had
continuously recorded during testing.
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Both girder beam tests B1 & B2 showed a very ductile behavior and a large
deformation behavior at ultimate limit state (Figure 7). Test girder B1 attained a
maximum load of 944.8kN and test girder B2 a maximum load of 953.3kN. Both test
girders failed due to a bending failure in the concrete compression zone. Near the
load pads (bearing of the load distribution girder) the concrete constricted, concrete
blocks started to spall mechanically. A comparison of the calculative bearing capacity
and the experimental capacity clearly shows a full composite action between the steel
girder section and the concrete chord.
Load [kN]
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Deflection [mm]
Fig. 7 – Load-deflection curve - test girder B2
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The evaluation of the strain records for the transverse reinforcement shows,
that all reinforcement bars of the concrete dowels have exceeded the yielding point
before ultimate failure of the girder test specimens. At a load of 75% of the ultimate
load the reinforcement of the concrete dowel reached the yielding strength. Therefore
composite action has been achieved by the concrete dowels and they provide a high
and ductile capacity of the shear joint. Due to the longitudinal shear force in the
concrete, the stirrups were activated but without exceeding the yielding strength.
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To check the stiffness at serviceability limit state level, the natural frequency
of one long-span beam was measured. Two measurement campaigns were carried
out. The first was executed for the un-cracked, unloaded, composite section, before
the start of ULS testing. The second was performed for the cracked composite
section. For these measurements ULS testing has been stopped at the load level
corresponding to a deflection of L/300 and unloaded for the measurements. The
measured natural frequencies for the 2 conditions are given in Table 2. The derived
stiffness confirmed for full activation of the effective width and full shear connection.
© ASCE
The shear test girder S1 with a span of 4.0 m reached a maximum load of
1881.8kN (corresponds to ultimate bending moment of 1529kNm). The girder
deflection at the ultimate state limit was 142mm at mid-span, for the serviceability
(50% of the ultimate load) 16mm. The load-deflection curve is given in Figure 9.
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Despite the length of the shear force charge (1.63m), the girder failed due to
bending with failure of the concrete compressive strength (Figure 9). As for the long-
span beam tests, first, concrete blocks spalled near the load bearing pad and increased
in transverse girder direction. Further slant cracks were monitored on the top side of
the concrete plate in direction towards the girder supports, a typical shear crack
behavior.
For shear beam test
S2, with 50% shear
connection, the maximum
load capacity was 1688.5kN
(corr. bending moment of
1371kNm) with a mid-span
deflection of 152.3mm. The
deflection at serviceability
(50% of the ultimate limit
state) was about 15.4mm,
see Figure 10. The minor
difference regarding the
maximum jack force and Fig. 9 – Load-deflection curve shear-beam test S1
the maximum moment (full shear connection)
respectively indicates that
the composite joint of the
partial connected shear
beam did not fail. Also
shear beam test S2 failed
due to failure of the
concrete compr. strength in
mid-span. It has to be
remarked, that additional
load components as friction
and clamping effects may
result in an increase in
resistance of the concrete
dowels in the beam tests. Fig. 10 – Load-deflection curve of shear beam S2
(partial shear connection)
© ASCE
varied to check their influence on the shear connection, see also Table 3:
- concrete compression strength (cylindric concrete compression strength fck and
corresponding tensile concrete strength fctm,
- the web thickness of the steel beam section tweb,
- the diameter of the hole in the slim-floor beams’ web ∅d,
- the diameter of the reinforcement bar through the web hole ∅r.
The concrete class has been varied from C20/25 to C50/60, to cover the
common application range in building construction. The cross section of the test
specimens are shown in Figure 11. For the reference tests the steel section was based
on a HE220M (S355M) profile with the addition of a welded bottom flange
450x20mm (tweb = 15.5mm). For the tests on the thinner web thickness (2-1a and 2-
1b) the steel section HE240A (S355M) has been chosen (tweb = 7.5mm). The concrete
dowels were based on drilled holes with a diameter of ∅d = 40mm at 125mm distance
each but has been changed to a diameter of ∅d = 25mm for test series 2-2a. In test
series 2-3 the web holes were filled with silicone to exclude concrete in this location
around the penetrating reinforcement bar. Through each dowel a reinforcement bar
with diameter ∅r = 12mm was placed. To check the influence of the bar diameter it
has been changed to ∅r = 25mm for series 2-2b.
The slab thickness was in total 27.4cm supported by cams of 16mm for the
beam tests, thus the concrete topping over the beam was 50mm. In test P1 stirrups
were inserted at the edges to connect the chamber concrete with the in-situ concrete
of the deck layer (the series P1 has shown, that these stirrups are not required and
therefore they have been omitted for the subsequent series). The slab consisted of a
COFRADAL200® deck [Arval] with a height of 14cm as lost formwork and second
phases a concrete chord of 13.4cm.
Each half of the push-out tests has 5 holes (dowels) positioned in the steel
web (see Figure 11). Hence, each push-out test had 10 concrete dowels in sum (see
Figure 12).
The tests have been performed deflection controlled. Regularly the loading
has been stopped and kept constant for approximately 5min to cover the influence of
the short-term relaxation. During testing, the jacking force Pj, slip and inclination by
deflection measurement devices and strains at the reinforcement bar at selected
locations have continuously been recorded.
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All push-out tests showed a ductile behaviour and reached a slip deformation
in the shear joint >6mm, as required for ductile composite action acc. to [DIN EN
1994].
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• The tests with a smaller web hole diameter ∅d have shown a lower shear
capacity, however with -9% to an insignificant level;
• The influence of the reinforcement bar (diameter) seems to be decisive in
design for the bearing capacity. The doubling of the diameter (which means a
quadruplicating of the cross-sectional-area) results in a significant increase in
bearing capacity; the final resistance could not be determined due to failure of
the test specimens’ concrete footing;
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• The infill of concrete in the web hole around the reinforcement bar has a great
influence on the bearing capacity of the concrete dowel shear connection. If
the concrete filling in the hole is prevented, the maximum load is reduced by a
third with highly increased slip at ultimate bearing capacity level.
C30/37 C50/60
C30/37 C20/25
C30/37 C50/60
4000
tw 15.5 tw 7.5
tw 15.5 tw 7.5
3500 ∅12 ∅25
h40 h25
No infill
3000
2500 Reference
2000
+80% *
-9%
-11%
1500
-26%
-28%
-25%
-36%
1000
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75
Reference: C30/37, tw = 15.5, h40, ∅12 fc,cube [N/mm²]
Fig. 14 – Influence of tested parameters on the bearing capacity
The shear connection capacity over the concrete strength for all test series is
summarized in Figure 14 and the relation of the each bearing capacity to the reference
series is given.
The tests clearly showed the high performance and bearing capacity of the
reinforcement bar as shear connector through the steel girder web (concrete dowel).
Hereby the capacity mainly depends on the reinforcement bar. A large ductility, far
larger than the 6mm criteria imposed by the Eurocode, is also to be noted. Shear
block failure has not been observed.
© ASCE
In the frame of the test results analyses the experimentally derived shear
capacities Pexp have been compared to various design approaches in literature. The
shearing criterion by Zapfe [Zapfe 2001] for concrete dowels deeply embedded in
concrete seems hereby the best fitting one. Therefore the experimentally determined
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load capacities Pexp have been compared to calculated capacities Pth by [Zapfe 2001].
For this comparison, the characteristic concrete tension strength fctk and the Youngs’
modulus of the concrete Ecm have been calculated according to the Eurocode from the
measured fck. For the reinforcement Es has been assumed to be 210000 N/mm2.
, = 23.4 ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
with:
Ad = area of web hole
ρi = 1+(Es/Ecm -1)⋅Asq1/Ad
Asq1 = section of reinforcement
fck [N/mm2] in web hole
Fig. 15 – Comp. of the experimental test results fh = (1,2 - ∅d/180) ≤ 1
Pexp to calculated values Pth acc. to [Zapfe 2001]
From the comparison, see Figure 15, it is concluded that the linear
dependency of this criterion from the tension strength fctm cannot be confirmed for the
CoSFB configuration, see especially Pexp/Pth for series 1b and 2-1b. Further the
influence of the reinforcement diameter is not reflected appropriately, see Pexp/Pth for
series 2-2a. Therefore a new design model is to be developed.
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The average slenderness ratio (beam span / height) of the CoSFB is around
35. This leads to slender constructions in combination with large spans. CoSFB spans
of 12m (beam distance up to 10m) and a construction height of only 35cm can be
realized. The typical weight of the CoSFB is around 20kg/m2.
More than 40 million square meters of floors are built in central Europe per
year (figure of 2009, non-residential buildings). Most of them are constructed with a
standard 8m x 8m grid, mainly because of cost reasons. This contribution presents a
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solution with which grids of 14m x 10m are realizable without a significant cost
increase, see Fig. 16. Therefore the customer demand is not only met but extended.
7m 8m 14m
Beam
Cofradal200 (2008)
Slim-Floor
Cofradal260 (2009)
solutions
7m
available
market
Cofraplus220 (2010)
in 2008
8m
Response
9m
Slab
Fig. 16 – Economic floor solutions
This contribution outlines the potential and the testing of concrete dowels and
their application for slim-floor construction. Sufficient load bearing capacity and
ductile behavior of this innovative shear connection has been proven for slim-floor
beams configurations. Thus the concrete dowels can be distributed equidistant, partial
shear connection can be designed. Further the beam tests have shown an activation of
the concrete chord even larger than the effective width according to Eurocode 4 [DIN
EN1994-1-1]. Therefore it is concluded that based on the described test results, that
the full plastic design of CoSFBs in accordance with EN is possible. Design values
for the shear connection will be soon available in a General Technical Approval to be
published by DIBT [DIBT 2013]; detailed information on the bearing mechanism and
design guidance will be published [Braun]. Hereby the effect of dropping bearing
resistance of the shear connection with increase in concrete strength will be covered.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
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