ADVANCED STEEL

MEAE 1073 DESIGN

COMPOSITE BEAM DESIGN
TO EC4

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Introduction
Composite construction
 is a generic term to describe any building construction
involving multiple and combination of dissimilar
materials. There are several reasons to use composite
materials including increased strength, aesthetics, and
environmental sustainability.
 exists when two different materials are bound together
so strongly that they act together as a single unit
structurally. This is called composite action.
 One common example involves steel beams supporting
concrete floor slabs (known as composite beams).
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Including..
• Composite slab – comprises of profiled steel decking (or sheeting) as the
permanent formwork to the underside of concrete slab spanning between
supporting beams.
• Composite beam - comprises of steel beam, usually of I section which is
designed to act compositely with concrete or composite slab by use of shear
connectors.
• Composite column - comprises of steel sections with a concrete encasement
or core. Encased columns usually consist of standard I-beam or H-column
sections with a rectangular or square concrete section encasement to form a
solid composite section.
• Composite joint - Developed from the tension reinforcement bars embedded
into the slab.
• Can also have composite plate girder and composite truss.
Benefits of Composite Construction
• Rapid construction – lower cost
• Savings in steel weight: 30 – 50% over non-composite beams
• Greater stiffness – shallower beam depth – lower storey height or more
room for services
• Metal deck as working platform during construction – scaffolding could be
eliminated – construction period reduced
• Metal deck acts as transverse reinforcement to the composite beam
• Slab develops composite action with concrete to resist imposed load on
the floor
• Slab stabilizes the steel beam from lateral torsional buckling
• Aesthetic value

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Advantages of composite column

• Increase in strength and stiffness, leading to reduce in

slenderness and increase in buckling resistance.
• Good fire resistance and corrosion in the case of concrete
encased columns.
• Significant economic advantages over either pure structural steel
or reinforced concrete alternatives.
• Identical cross sections with different load and moment
resistances by varying steel thickness, the concrete strength and
reinforcement.
Composite slab
Laying out of composite slab

Concreting the slab

Installing the profiled metal decks

Composite beam attached to composite slab
Composite column

Encased Partially Concrete

Encased Filled
Composite joint
Testing on a Composite Slab
Planting Shear
Studs
(through-deck
welding)
 Basis of design - Composite Slabs
(Strength of decking)

■ The design of composite slabs is often limited by the ability of the deck to
resist the load applied to it during construction.
■ The strength is determined elastically since its performance is limited by local
buckling.
■ The design of composite slabs is usually based on information published by
sheeting suppliers (in the form of load/span and fire resistance tables).
■ It is relatively conservative as compared with the test results. Manufacturers
often present load-span tables on the basis of tests rather than the elastic
approach.
■ Once the concrete has hardened, there is composite action between the
steel sheeting and the concrete.
 Basis of design - Composite Slabs
(Common practices)

■ Common configuration of decks and slabs

– Profile height: 45 to 90mm, Trough spacing: 150 to 300mm
– Galvanized steel is utilized (0.02mm) or Zincalum
– Thickness: 0.9 to 1.5mm
– Z28 steel (280N/mm2) is normally applied
– Z35 for deeper or longer span
– Slab span: 2.7 to 3.6m (up to 6m by Blue scope)
– Slab thickness: 100 to 200mm
– Concrete type: NWC and LWC
– Loads on floor normally assumed distributes in the deck span direction (one way)
– Depth ratio (based on the overall slab thickness) of continuous composite slabs should
be less than 30 for LWC and 35 for NWC in order to satisfy the deflection limits. These
ratios should be reduced by 5 for single-span slabs.
Basis of design - Composite Slabs
(Some deck profiles)
 Basis of design - Composite beam
(Structural system)

 Composite beam is essentially a series of parallel T beams with wide flange.

 Concrete flange in compression
 Steel beam is largely in tension
 Bending capacity is evaluated on ‘plastic’ analysis principles, whereas
serviceability performance is evaluated on elastic section analysis principles.
 Normal practices:
 S275 and S355 steel are often preferred for steel beam
 Designed to be un-propped
 Recommendations given in Eurocode 4 are limited to concrete strength
classes between C20/25 and C60/75 for normal weight concrete, and
LC20/22 and LC60/66 for lightweight concrete
 Light weight concrete often proves to be more economical than normal weight
concrete.
 For simply supported beam, Span-to-depth ratio can be in the range of 18 to
22 based on the plastic capacity.
 The depth is defined as the overall depth of the floor (beam and slab)
Material properties for concrete are given by BS EN 1992-1-1
Values for fck and Ecm are given below in Table 1.
Design Process of Composite Beam

• 1. Design resistance of steel section at Construction Stage

(ULS)
• 2. Design resistance of cross section at Composite Stage (ULS)
• 3. Design for Serviceability Limit State

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Composite Stage may includes..

Determination of:
• 1. Effective Width, beff
• 2. Neutral Axis (x)
• 3. Shear and Bending moment resistances
• 4. Shear Connector resistance
• 5. Local Shear in Concrete
• 6. Other SLS checks

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 Basis of design - Composite beam
(Construction condition)

■ (Unpropped construction) steel beam is sized first to support the self weight
of slab and other construction loads before the concrete has gained
adequate strength for composite action.
■ Construction load (as imposed load) should be taken as not less than
0.75kN/m2 or, alternatively, a point load of 4kN.
■ Beams are assumed to be laterally restrained by the decking where the deck
spans perpendicular to the beam.
■ If the deck spans parallel to the beam, lateral restrained is not assumed
offered by the deck. The lateral restrained should depend on the secondary
beam.
Basis of design - Composite beam
(Effective width or breadth)
Basis of design - Composite beam
(Effective width)

Be
be = Lz/8 < 0.8b
be = Lz/8 < 0.8b

Area being ignored

normally b
Be for slab spanning parallel to beam
b Be b

be = Lz/8 < b be = Lz/8 < b

Be for slab spanning perpendicular to beam

 Basis of design - Composite beam
(Shear connection)

■ Headed stud (usually 19mm diameter and 100mm height) is the most
popular shear connection.
■ Studs are often welded through the decking using a hand tool connected via
a control unit to a power generator.
■ The ultimate tensile strength of the steel used in the shear connectors should
be not less than 450N/mm2 and the elongation at failure not less than 15%.
■ The strength of shear connectors is a function of the concrete strength and
type, and is determined from the standard push-out test.
 Basis of design - Composite beam
(Shear connection)
Table 2 Characteristic strengths of headed studs in normal weight concrete

Dimensions of stud shear connectors (mm) Characteristic strength of concrete

(N/mm2)
Diameter Nominal As-welded height 25 30 35 40
height
25 100 95 146 154 161 168

22 100 95 119 126 132 139

19 100 95 95 100 104 109

19 75 70 82 87 91 96

16 75 70 70 74 78 82

13 65 60 44 47 49 52

For concrete of characteristic strength greater than 40 N/mm use the values for 40 N/mm
For connectors of heights greater than tabulated use the values for the greatest height tabulated.
Design strength = 0.8 x characteristic strength.
 Basis of design - Composite beam
(Shear connection)

■ The design strength of shear connectors is taken as 80% of their

characteristic strength, in order to ensure that flexural failure of the beam
occurs in preference to longitudinal shear failure.
■ A further 10% reduction in strength is made where LWC is used (density >
1750kg/m3).

6.6.1.2 Limitation on the use of partial shear connection in beams for

buildings
(1) Headed studs with an overall length after welding not less than 4 times
the diameter, and with a shank of nominal diameter not less than 16 mm and
not greater than 25 mm, may be considered as ductile within the following
limits for the degree of shear connection, which is defined by the ratio

η = n / nf :
Basis of design - Composite beam
(Shear connection)
 Shear connection

Rules for sheeting spanning parallel to the supporting beam are given in 6.6.4.1, while
6.6.4.2 covers sheeting transverse to the supporting beam.

The resistance of a headed stud within profiled sheeting is determined by multiplying the
design resistance for a headed stud connector in a solid concrete slab (PRd) by a
reduction factor (kℓ for parallel sheeting and kt for transverse sheeting).

To prevent uplift, the shear connector should have a tensile resistance equal to at least a
tenth of its shear resistance; headed shear studs can satisfy this requirement.
Design resistance of a headed stud connector
Solid concrete slabs

The expressions presented in 6.6.3.1 are used to determine the resistance of a headed stud
connector in a solid slab.

The resistance is taken as the lesser of the values determined from expressions (6.18) and
(6.19).

Those expressions use a partial factor of γV, for which a value of 1.25 is adopted by NA.2.3.

The design resistance of a headed stud shear connector in a solid slab is the smaller of:
Design resistance of a headed stud connector
Solid concrete slabs

The expressions presented in 6.6.3.1 are used to determine the resistance of a headed stud
connector in a solid slab.

The resistance is taken as the lesser of the values determined from expressions (6.18) and
(6.19).

Those expressions use a partial factor of γV, for which a value of 1.25 is adopted by NA.2.3.

The design resistance of a headed stud shear connector in a solid slab is the smaller of:
Minimum degree of shear connection in buildings
The minimum degree of shear connection introduced in 6.6.1.2 ensures that the shear studs
have adequate deformation capacity, based on a characteristic slip capacity of 6 mm.

The degree of shear connection is defined in 4-1-1/6.6.1.2 as:

 Plastic resistance with full shear connection

Typical plastic stress distributions for composite beams with full shear connection are
shown in Figure 4.2.

Concrete in compression may be assumed to resist a stress equal to 0.85fcd over the full
depth from the plastic neutral axis to the most compressed fibre in accordance with 4-
1-1/6.2.1.2.

The contribution of the steel sheeting in compression

should be ignored.
Figure 4.2 (a) Plastic stress distributions for full shear connection
Figure 4.2 (b) Plastic stress distributions for full shear connection
Figure 4.2 (c) Plastic stress distributions for full shear connection
Plastic bending resistance with partial shear
connection

When the full compression resistance of the concrete flange (Nc,f ) is not
required for the bending resistance of the composite beam, the shear
connectors are not required to transfer a force equal to Nc,f .

For this situation, the composite beam may be designed with partial shear
connection.
The simplest method of determining the moment resistance of a
composite section is the ‘linear-interaction’ approach, covered by 4-1-
1/6.2.1.3. The bending resistance for partial interaction is given by:
 Vertical shear resistance
The resistance of the composite beam to vertical shear is normally taken as the shear
resistance of the steel section; any contribution from the slab is ignored, unless a value for
this contribution has been established experimentally

The design plastic shear resistance, Vpl,Rd, may be determined from clause EC4, cl 6.2.6,
which gives the following expression.
 LONGITUDINAL SHEAR IN CONCRETE

 SLS CHECKS

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WORKED EXAMPLE

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END OF LECTURE

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