Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Experimental and numerical study on static behavior of elastic

concrete-steel composite beams
Ying Xing a, Qinghua Han a,b, Jie Xu a,b,⁎, Qi Guo a, Yihong Wang a
a
School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
b
Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Elastic concrete (rubber-filled concrete) is employed into the steel-concrete composite structures due to its good
Received 11 July 2015 ductility and crack resistance. Bending test and numerical simulation were conducted to investigate the static
Received in revised form 14 April 2016 behavior of partial shear connected elastic concrete-steel composite beam with different section size, studs
Accepted 23 April 2016
and degrees of shear connection. The results of the tests show that elastic concrete could improve the ductility
Available online 7 May 2016
behavior of stud and composite beam, and reduce the width of concrete cracks efficiently. Larger degree of
Keywords:
shear connection can lengthen the elastic stage and retard the development and spread of slip, but may lead to
Elastic concrete a decrement of ductility. With the degree of shear connection unchanged, stud with large diameter of 22 mm
Steel-concrete composite beam may cause 9% lower ultimate bearing capacity, and even worse deformability and ductility of composite beam
Experimental study compared with the smaller stud. Moreover, the analysis results exhibited a good behavior and applicability of
Parametric analysis the elastic concrete in the partial shear connected composite beams. With the help of elastic concrete, ductility
Degree of shear connection of composite beam has been improved effectively so that it is possible to apply large studs into practice.
Large studs © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Elastic concrete, also called tire rubber-filled concrete, is made from
common concrete added with the rubber particles. The rubber particles
made from recycled tire in elastic concrete can not only efficiently im-
prove mechanical property of the concrete, but also ease the potential
environment threat. Because of its good performance in crack and
fatigue resistance, elastic concrete has become a matter of interest for
new environmental material in the last few years. Since the first pave-
ment made of elastic concrete had been built in Arizona State University
in 1999, elastic concrete is widely used in road pavements applications
[1]. For many years, much research in has focused on the material prop-
erties of elastic concrete. Hernandez [2,3] conducted a series of tests on
elastic concrete with different volumetric fractions to investigate its
static, dynamic and fatigue behaviors. The main conclusions were re-
ferred to the optimal crumbed rubber fiber content, the dynamic energy
dissipation, the damping capacity and the stiffness reduction of the
concrete-rubber composite. Three-point bending fatigue tests were
carried by Feng [4] to prove that the fatigue life of elastic concrete was
obviously larger than the common concrete.
On the other hand, as a result of the benefits of combining the advan-
tages of its components, steel-concrete composite beams have been
widely used in the high-rise buildings, multi-floor industrial buildings
⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin
300072, China.
E-mail address: jxu@tju.edu.cn (J. Xu).
and bridges, which brings good economic and social benefits. It is gen-
erally accepted that concrete properties and shear connectors play and
important role in the static behavior of composite beams. As a result, a
great number of tests were conducted to determine the influence of
them. Sang-Hyo Kim [5] studied the performance of composite beam
with different degrees of shear connection and found a very small differ-
ence among the ultimate loads of the specimens. Nie [6] conducted to-
tally 13 tests including simply-supported and continuous composite
beams with profiled sheeting to suggest that partial shear connections
can be used in both positive and negative bending regions in continuous
composite beams. A new connection device avoiding welding was stud-
ied by Jurkiewiez [7] through a composite beam bending test, and
proved to be viable under static loading and suited structural codes re-
quirements. Youn-Ju Jeong [8] proposed a simplified model to predict
the partial-interactive behavior of steel-concrete composite slabs,
which was verified by test program and proved to have a potential
advantage.
The recent research suggested a possible application of large studs
and partial shear connection on account of their shorter welding time
and easier replacement of deteriorated concrete slab. Unfortunately,
the poor ductility of large stud may be a key restriction for the applica-
tion. In light of the good static behaviors and deformability of the elastic
concrete, to employ the elastic concrete as an alternative for the com-
posite beam can theoretically reach better results. Although a great
number of previous works had focused on the elastic concrete and com-
posite beam respectively, there was little research deal with elastic
concrete-steel composite beam. To address the problem, this paper

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2016.04.023
0143-974X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
80 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92
focuses on the static behavior of elastic concrete-steel composite beam
and systematically investigated the rationality of this application.
In this study, a series of 6 bending tests were developed to study
the behavior of elastic concrete-steel composite beam with different
stud and shear connection. This paper presents the results of tests,
theoretical calculation and finite element analysis. Parametric study
was conducted by finite element method to investigate the influence
of the volumetric fractions of rubber, the diameter of shear stud and
the degrees of connection.
2. Test program
2.1. Test specimens
Six composite beam specimens were designed based on the Chinese
code [9]. All of the specimens were used for the static test and are
denoted as FBFT-1–FBFT-6. The overall span of the composite beam
is 3700 mm, where the pure bending span is 700 mm and the shear
span is 1500 mm. Stiffening ribs were established at the loading and
support section, as shown in Fig. 1.
Two types of sections, HW250 × 250 and HW350 × 350 profile steel,
were selected as the steel beam. Two specimens were fabricated using
common concrete, whereas the other four specimens were fabricated
using elastic concrete with 10% volumetric fractions of rubber. The con-
crete slab and steel beam were connected by single-rowed studs welded
onto the beam. There were three types of studs, with diameters of 16,
19, and 22 mm, used in the tests, and two types of shear connection
degrees of 0.5 and 0.68 were used. The shear connection degree γ was
defined as follow:
ns  V u
γ¼
Vs
V s ¼ As f ≤beff hc f c
where ns is the number of studs in a shear span; Vu is the shear capacity
of a single stud, which is defined by corresponding push out tests [10];
Vs is the total shear force provided by studs in a full shear connected
composite beam; As is the cross section area of steel beam; f is yield
Fig. 1. Layout of studs in specimens(unit: mm).
strength of steel; beff is the effective width of composite slab; hc is the
thickness of concrete slab; fc is the compressive strength of concrete.
The welding collars met the requirements of EN ISO 13918 (1998).
The composite beam specimens were cured in a normal environment
similar to that for composite beams in practice. The test program
consisted of four controlled variables, including the volumetric fraction
of rubber, the size of the steel beam, the degree of the shear connection
and the stud diameter. The controlled variables are summarized in
Table 1, and the details of the specimens and studs are shown in
Figs. 1–3, respectively.
2.2. Material properties
The rubber particles with the diameter of 0.85–4.75 mm were used
in this study. Generally, the replacement of fine aggregate by rubber
particles can reduce the concrete's strength. To avoid the reduction ef-
fect of rubber particles on the compressive strength of the concrete,
the compressive strength of elastic concrete can be increased to that
of normal concrete by changing the proportions of other aggregates.
In our previous paper [11], the mechanical behavior of elastic concrete
with four different volumetric fractions (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%) were
assessed, including compressive strength, elastic modulus and com-
pressive stress-strain full curve. It was shown that the increasing ampli-
tudes of peak strain for the elastic concrete with 5%, 10% and 15% rubber
content were 10%, 60% and 65% respectively, which presented a better
deformability. However, the elastic concrete with the rubber content
of 15% had a worse fluidity to apply in the practical project. Based on
the results of Ref. [11], elastic concrete with the rubber volumetric frac-
tion of 10% was proved to be the most appropriate and chosen in this
study. For each type of concrete, six 150 × 150 × 150 mm standard
ð1Þ cubes were prepared together with the composite beam specimens.
Three cube specimens were cured under standard curing conditions,
and the others were cured under the same condition as the composite
ð2Þ
beam specimens. Table 2 presents the mean compressive strength and
elasticity modulus of concrete tested over 28 days and when the bend-
ing test was initiated.
Q235 profile steel was used in the tests. Based on the material tests
performed on lath cut from the flange of the steel beam, the mean yield
strength and ultimate strength were 267 N/mm2 and 402 N/mm2,
 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92 81

Table 1
Parameters of the composite beam specimens.

Specimen Section of steel beam Width of Volumetric fraction Diameter of Number of studs Degree of shear Longitudinal
slab /mm of rubber /% stud /mm connection reinforcement

FBST-1 HW250 × 250 130 0 16 25 0.5 Φ6@100

FBST-2 HW250 × 250 130 10 16 25 0.5
FBST-3 HW250 × 250 130 10 16 33 0.68
FBST-4 HW350 × 350 160 0 19 25 0.5
FBST-5 HW350 × 350 160 10 19 25 0.5
FBST-6 HW350 × 350 160 10 22 18 0.5

respectively. ML15 studs were used in the tests, and the mean ultimate
strength was 365 N/mm2 according to the test results. Based on the ten-
sile tests on 6-mm standard bars, the yield strength and ultimate
strength were determined to be 358 N/mm2 and 455 N/mm2.
2.3. Test setup and loading procedures
Monotonic loading was applied by a 5000-kN electro-hydraulic
servo testing machine, shown in Fig. 4(a). The load at midspan was
distributed to the two loading points, and the distance between them
was 700 mm. The composite beam specimen was simply supported,
and 40-mm-thick steel plans were set under the supports to decrease
the local stress. The details can be found in Fig. 4(b).
After preloading before the formal test to remove the gaps between
the specimen and the testing machine, monotonic loading was conduct-
ed at a rate of 0.2 kN/s, and the loading was held constant for 2 min after
reaching the default during each stage. The load increment was imposed
as 50 kN for each stage at the initiation of the test; then, the loading
method was changed to displacement control after either yielding ap-
peared or the loading had reached 80% of the expected ultimate bearing
capacity. The load produced by the actuator, the displacement of the ac-
tuator, the longitudinal slip between the concrete slab and the steel
beam, and the uplift of the concrete slabs from the steel flange were
continuously measured throughout the test.
Fig. 2. Cross sectional of specimens(unit: mm).
2.4. Measuring-point layout
The displacement measured by the built-in transducer in the
actuator included extra movement due to the compliance of the test
rig; therefore, it was larger than the real displacement and was only
used for the estimation. The deflection at midspan was measured
using a 1/1000-mm displacement meter (D1) with a range of 100 mm
under the specimen. The longitudinal slips at different positions were
measured by four displacement meters (D2 and D5) with a range of
50 mm on the flanges. The uplift of the concrete slabs was measured
by a displacement meter (D6) with a range of 10 mm.
At the sections corresponding to the middle of the pure bending
span and shear spans, the strains of the steel and concrete were mea-
sured by 24 strain gauges. C1 – C15 were set on the concrete sections,
and S1 – S8 were set on the steel sections to obtain the composite effect
of the position of the plastic neutral axis. The position of the measuring
point and the slip measurement method are presented in Fig. 5. All of
the measurements were conducted until the specimen failed.
3. Test result analysis
3.1. Failure modes
There were three stages in a typical failure process. The first stage
corresponded to a linear response and stable stiffness before the bottom
fiber of the steel beams yielded. At the end of this stage when the load
reached 0.7–0.8 Put, concrete cracks first appeared at the bottom of the
slab under the loading points, but the initial tiny cracks did not change
the stiffness of the composite beam, in which Put is the ultimate bearing
capacity of composite beam. The second stage corresponded to a nonlin-
ear behavior, starting from the weakening of composite effects and the
decreasing of stiffness. When the load reached 0.8–0.9 Put, the widths
and lengths of the cracks continuously increased as the load increased,
and the concrete slab in the shear span had clearly separated from
the steel beam, as shown in Fig. 6(a). The last stage corresponded to
the failure of the composite beam when the ultimate bear capacity
was reached. At the collapse load, the concrete slabs in the pure bending
span were crushed due to the large compressive stress, as shown in
Fig. 6(b). Figs. 6(c)–(d) show that the failure of the composite effect
lead to a rapid increase in stress, and the bottom flange of the steel
beam yielded in tension.
Fig. 7 presents the crack pattern of the concrete slabs of the six spec-
imens. The transverse cracks occurred only at the critical sections in the
pure bending span. Comparing FBST-1 with FBST-2 and FBST-4 with

Table 2
Mean values of the material properties of the concrete.

Volumetric fraction fc(28 days with fc,t(at the time of test E/MPa
of rubber (%) standard curing /MPa) with air curing /MPa)

0% 38.97 44.3 3.37 × 104

10% 37.48 42.51 2.87 × 104
Fig. 3. Details of studs(unit: mm).
82 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92
Fig. 4. Setup of test.
FBST-5, small numbers of transverse cracks widely opened across the
full width of the slabs in the common concrete slabs, while tiny cracks
did not develop across the full width of the slabs with a smoother distri-
bution in the elastic concrete slabs.
Compared to FBST-2, FBST-3 with larger degrees of shear connec-
tions had fewer cracks at the bottom of the slab under the loading
points, which proved to be a better composite effect. However, the
crushing of the slab in the pure bending span was the most serious,
which indicated the failure to be more brittle. The same conclusion
can be obtained for composite beams with the same degree of connec-
tion but with larger studs by comparing FBST-5 and FBST-6.
3.2. Ultimate bearing capacity
The ultimate shear strength of each specimen is summarized in
Table 3. In the table, Pp and Pu represent the proportional limit load
and the ultimate load, respectively. Pp/Pu represents the share of the
elastic stage to the overall loading process, and Ratio equals to each
case/FBST-1 or FBST-4.
The ultimate bearing capacities were almost identical for specimens
in the same series, whereas they greatly varied for those in different se-
ries. Compared with Series 1, specimens in Series 2 had higher Pp/Pu,
which means a higher yield strength and more stable stiffness in the de-
sign but less strength reserve in the elastic stage.
Comparing FBST-1 with FBST-2, FBST-4 with FBST-5, the ultimate
bearing capacity was almost equal to the largest gap, which was only
2%. It is believed that if the compressive strength of normal concrete
and elastic concrete is equal, the bearing capacity of the specimens
will be not affected by the addition of rubber particles. However, Pp/Pu
Fig. 5. Measuring points layout of specimen.
of the elastic concrete-steel composite beam decreased by 5%, indicating
an earlier stiffness deterioration.
Comparing FBST-3 with the others, the degree of shear connection
was found to not strongly affect the ultimate strength. The ultimate
strength of the composite beam should be determined by the plastic
neutral axis and the plastic moment. The sections of the specimens are
equal to each other, and the sectional increase in stud shear connector
presents a minimal effect. Therefore, the degree of the shear connection
does not affect the ultimate strength if the degree of the shear connec-
tion is greater than a certain limit. In addition, Pp/Pu is 0.53 for FBST-2
and 0.67 for FBST-3; therefore, there is an obvious growth trend of Pp/Pu
with increasing degree of shear connection.
For the specimens with the same degree of shear connection, the
ultimate load decreased by 9% with a larger section area of the stud.
The larger diameter leads to fewer studs when the degree of shear con-
nection is the same. Accordingly, the failure of a large stud may lead to
more adverse effects on the composite effect as well as the position of
the plastic neutral axis and ultimate bearing capacity.
3.3. Deflection and stiffness
Ductility is a basic concept in the design and is indicated by deflec-
tion. Table 4 summarizes the proportional deflection, ultimate deflec-
tion and shear stiffness of the six specimens. In Table 4, Δp and Δu
represent the deflection corresponding to the proportional limit load
and ultimate load, respectively. K is the initial bending stiffness, defined
as the ratio of Pp and Δp. Δu/Δp represents the deformability when fail-
ure occurs. It is expected that a larger value of Δu,m/Δm,m will indicate
a lesser displacement created during a normal situation but a larger de-
formation during failure.
Table 4 shows that the parametric variables had larger effects on the
ultimate deflection than did the elastic deflection and stiffness. A reduc-
tion in stiffness of 8% but an increase in ultimate deflection of 40%
caused by the use of elastic concrete can be found by comparing the re-
sults of FBST-1 against FBST-2 and FBST-4 against FBST-5. As a result,
obvious increases in Δu/Δp of 41 and 50% simultaneously indicate a
less weakened stiffness in the elastic stage but a more improved
deformability and ductility. The ductility, which is defined by Δu/Δp, is
6.15 and 4.04 for the specimens with elastic concrete but different de-
grees of shear connections in FBST-2 and FBST-3. This means that
there is a reduction in ductility for a larger degree of shear connections
of 0.68 compared to 0.5. Similarly, the larger diameter of the stud may
lead to an extremely small Δu and Δu/Δp due to the deficient strength
after yielding, which means a further reduced ductility.
3.4. Relative slip
The ductility of composite beams can also be represented through
relative slippage. Displacement meters were established at the
 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92 83

Fig. 6. Failure modes of composite beams: (a) Relative uplifting of concrete slab; (b) Crush of concrete; (c) Bending failure of composite beam; (d) Deformation of studs.

positions of four studs in the shear span during the tests to measure figure, δ represents the relative slip between the concrete slab and
the slippage along the span. The distribution of the relative slip along the steel beam, and l represents the distance from the support to
the slab length for different load levels is shown in Fig. 8. In the the measured section. Fig. 9 presents the relationship between the

Fig. 7. Crack patterns of concrete slabs.

84 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92

Table 3 constraint; therefore, the relative slip increased upon failure, which in-
Ultimate shear capacity of the composite beams. dicates improved ductility. When the load reached 200 kN, slippage of
Series Specimens Pp/kN Ratio Pu/kN Ratio Pp/Pu Ratio FBST-2 appeared at the steel-concrete interface at a position 600 mm
Series1 FBST-1 302 1.00 540 1.00 0.56 1.00
away from the support, and the load was 500 kN for the slip of FBST-3
FBST-2 281 0.93 534 0.99 0.53 0.95 and spread to the same position. As a result, it can be estimated that
FBST-3 356 1.18 532 0.99 0.67 1.19 the larger degree of shear connection did not affect the ultimate
Series2 FBST-4 828 1.00 1274 1.00 0.65 1.00 strength but did greatly reduce the slip and ductility of the composite
FBST-5 795 0.96 1305 1.02 0.61 0.94
beam. The ductility characterized by the relative deformation also var-
FBST-6 889 1.07 1158 0.91 0.77 1.18
ied with the diameter of the stud. The ultimate slip of FBST-5 with a
smaller stud diameter was 3 times that of FBST-6, and a greater ductile
behavior can be obtained.
Table 4
Deflection and stiffness of the composite beams. 3.5. Distribution of strain and plastic neutral axis
Series Specimens Δp/kN Δu/kN Ratio Δu/Δp Ratio K/kN·mm−1 Ratio

Series1 FBST-1 9.26 40.39 1.00 4.36 1.00 33.74 1.00

Fig. 10 presents the strain distribution across the specimen height at
FBST-2 9.52 58.58 1.45 6.15 1.41 30.89 0.92 the midspan of the composite beam at different loading stages. All of the
FBST-3 10.73 43.41 1.07 4.04 1.19 34.11 1.01 composite beams were designed to have their neutral axis located in the
Series2 FBST-4 7.61 58.12 1.00 7.64 1.00 108.83 1.00 top flanges of the steel beams; therefore, there should be no tensile
FBST-5 7.07 81.22 1.40 11.49 1.50 112.50 1.03
stress at the bottom side of the concrete slabs. However, only the stress
FBST-6 9.05 23.23 0.40 2.57 0.34 98.25 0.90
of FBST-3 with larger degrees of shear connections was equal to that of
the design, and the strain distributed according with the plain section
slip and the load, where the slip is the maximum of the four mea- assumption. In the cases of other specimens with smaller degrees of
sured values in Fig. 8 for each specimen. shear connection, the plain section assumption was followed with
The phenomenon can be easily recognized in Fig. 8, whereby slip- small loads. As the load increased, the slip at the interface was obvious,
page did not distribute linearly along the length of the composite and two plastic neutral axes (one in the slab and the other in the steel
beam in the elastic stage. This is because the slips are extremely small beam) were observed due to the slip effect and tensile stress at the bot-
and may be affected by many factors such as the stud weld quality, com- tom of the concrete slabs.
paction rate of the concrete, and eccentric loading. However, slippage Fig. 10 shows that different rubber contents and stud diameters lead
rapidly increased during failure and became almost linearly distributed to varying loads when the plain section assumption did not hold. The
along the length of the composite beam. For most of the specimens, the loads for FBST-2 and FBST-5 with elastic concrete were 150 and
largest slippage appeared at the section near the supports and devel- 600 kN, respectively, and the loads for FBST-1 and FBST-4 with normal
oped to the midspan with increased load. concrete were 300 and 800 kN. The use of elastic concrete may lead to
For the stud embedded in rubber concrete, the deformation in an earlier weakening of the composite effect due to the larger deforma-
response to the applied shear force is larger according to the weaker tion of the stud and larger slip at the interface. Although the tensile

Fig. 8. Distribution of relative slip along the slab length for different load levels.
 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92 85

Fig. 9. Load versus slip curves.

stress appeared earlier at the bottom of the concrete slab, the improved
crack resistance of elastic concrete can reduce concrete cracking. More-
over, the weakness of the composite effect appeared earlier for the com-
posite beam with larger studs.
Fig. 11 presents the strain distribution across the specimen height at
the central section of the shear span of the composite beam. In contrast
to the stress at the midspan of the pure bending span, the concrete slab
in the shear span was in full compression, and the stress at the bottom
was zero. This is because the serious slip in the shear span led to a
very low-degree shear connection, and the concrete slab was almost
out of work in this area. Thus, one can conclude that the reliable shear
connection had failed when the load reached 0.6 Pu, and the concrete
slab in the shear span became invalid. As a result, the bending moment
was completely beard by the steel beam, and the plastic neutral axis in
the steel was almost at the middle of the H-profiled steel.
If fully shear connected, the plastic neutral axis of the composite
beam should be located in the top flange of the steel beam according
to the design. On the other hand, the plastic neutral axis in the steel
should be located at the middle of the section if there is no shear con-
nection. The composite effect provided by the shear connection is be-
tween the two extreme states and gradually weakened with further
damage to the stud. As a result, the plastic neutral axis in the steel grad-
ually moved down, and the height changed along the length. As shown
in Fig. 12, the height of the plastic neutral axis in the pure bending span

Fig. 10. Load-strain distribution at midspan of the pure bending span.

86 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92

Fig. 11. Load-strain distribution at midspan of the shear span.

was larger than that in the shear span. For specimens FBST-2 and FBST-3
with elastic concrete, the height of the plastic neutral axis was reduced
by h/4 and h/23 compared with FBST-1 and FBST-4, where h was the
height of the steel beam. Studs with larger diameters resulted in a sim-
ilar decrease of FBST-6 by h/10 compared to FBST-5. It can be concluded
that both elastic concrete and larger stud diameters can weaken the
composite effect and decrease the plastic neutral axis in the steel.
4. Calculation method for composite beam
4.1. Calculation of ultimate flexural capacity
Normally, there is a unique neutral axis in fully connected composite
beams, whereas there are two plastic neutral axes in partially connected
composite beams due to the relative slip between the concrete slab and

Fig. 12. Height of plastic neutral axe in steel beam.

 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92
Fig. 13. Calculation model for ultimate flexural capacity.
the steel beam. As shown in Fig. 13, one neutral axis is in the concrete
slab, and the other one is in the steel beam. The two plastic neutral
axes may lead to tensile stresses at the bottom of the concrete slab.
The composite beam specimens were designed with their plastic neu-
tral axis located in the steel webs. A calculation model for the ultimate
flexural capacity is proposed. Based on the simplified plastic theory,
it is reasonably assumed that (1) the compressing force supplied by
the concrete slab is equal to the sum of the shear force borne by shear
connectors in a shear span and that (2) the tensile strength of concrete
is ignored [12,13]. The section equilibrium gives
Mu ¼ NSC ðd1 −t f −a=2Þ þ 2f Aft ðd1 −t f =2Þ þ F c ðhc −xc =2 þ d1 Þ
NSC ¼ NS −F c −2f Aft ¼ 2 f t w a
N S ¼ As f
F c ¼ ns V u ¼ f c beff xc
where Mu is the ultimate flexural capacity of composite beam; NSC is the
twice the compression force of steel; NS is the tensile force capacity of
entire steel section; Fc is the compressing force supplied by concrete
slab; d1 is half of the height of steel section; a is the height of compres-
sive steel; xc is the height of compressive concrete; tf is the thickness of
steel flange; tw is the width of steel web; Aft is area of steel flange.
Solving Eqs. (3)–(6) yields an expression for the ultimate flexural ca-
pacity of the composite beam


1 1
Mu ¼ Ms þ ðhc þ d1 ÞF c − þ F2
4f t w 2f c beff c
where Ms is the ultimate flexural capacity of the steel beam.
4.2. The improved stiffness reduction theory considering the effect of
slippage
The calculation method used to determine the ultimate capacity
and stiffness was based on the idea of transformed sections. Due to
the additional bending moment caused by the interface slippage, the
real deformation of the composite beam is increased, or the stiffness is
equivalently reduced. The stiffness reduction method used in current
Chinese codes can properly estimate the stiffness within a certain
range [9]. However, as the degree of connection increases, the stiffness
reduction factor ξ increases to the largest value and then decreases,
which is not in agreement with practice. As a result, corresponding im-
provements should be made to solve this problem. On the basis of the
analytical solution for stiffness, a simplified method considering the ef-
fects of slippage was developed using the effective stiffness EIeff as the
reduced stiffness B [14,15].
The stiffness can be calculated as follows:
EIeq
B ¼ EIeff ¼
1þξ
87
η
ξ¼ 2
ð9Þ
1 þ ðμ=πÞ2 ðjlÞ
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2
dc A0 n1 kA1
η¼ ;j¼ ð10Þ
I0 EI 0 p
2
Acf A I0 þ A0 dc I
A0 ¼ ; A1 ¼ ; I0 ¼ I þ cf
α E A þ Acf A0 α E:
ð3Þ where E is the elastic modulus of the steel; Ieq is the equivalent sectional
moment of inertia; ξ is the stiffness reduction factor; μ is the calculated
ð4Þ length factor, which is equal to 1 for simply supported beams; l is the
span of the composite beam; dc is the distance between the centroids
ð5Þ of the steel beam and the concrete slab section; n1 is the number of
rows of studs welded onto the steel beam; k is the stiffness coefficient
of the shear connector; p is the average longitudinal spacing of the con-
ð6Þ
nectors; Acf and A are the sectional areas of the concrete slab and steel
beam, respectively; Icf, I are the sectional moments of inertia of the con-
crete slab and steel beam, respectively; and αE is the ratio of the elastic
modulus of steel to that of concrete.
5. Finite element model and parameter analysis
5.1. Model properties
To analyze the effects of the above-mentioned influential factors,
structural analysis models were developed. A numerical analysis was
ð7Þ conducted based on the test to further investigate the properties of
the composite beam. In this analysis, the commercial finite element
analysis program ABAQUS was used to simulate the test. The main com-
ponents influencing the behavior of the composite beam are the
concrete slab, steel beam, rebar and shear connectors. Due to the sym-
metry of the test specimens, half of the composite beam was modeled
according to the test arrangement [16]. The solid element (C3D8R)
was used for the concrete, steel beam and stud members, and the
truss element (T3D2) was used for the rebar member. Both geometric
and material nonlinearity were considered in the finite element analysis
[17]. The concrete slab and studs were the key members in the simula-
tion; therefore, the stress-strain curves of them were the entire curves
obtained from marital tests in Ref. [11]. The simplified three-stage
stress-strain curves were used for the steel beam member, as shown
in Fig. 14.
Appropriate constraints were used to describe the interaction be-
tween components. The nodes on the surfaces of the bottom of the
studs were tied to the surfaces of the steel beam by the tie constrain.
In bending tests, the steel beam flange surface contacting the concrete
slab is typically greased to reduce friction. As a result, frictionless contact
interaction was applied to the steel flange and concrete slab surfaces in
the analysis to avoid interpenetration. The interaction between the con-
crete and studs is very important. As observed in the tests, the studs
could fail in the shearing mode. The pull-out force was very small
ð8Þ
in comparison to the shear force, and pull-out failure did not occur. To
88 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92

Fig. 14. Stress-strain relationship of the materials.

Fig. 15. Boundary condition and loading surfaces of FEM model.

better simulate the phenomenon of slippage, the contact interaction
and cohesive layer were used at the interface between the concrete
slab and studs, whereas the embedment constraint was applied to the
rebar in the concrete slab, as shown in Fig. 15. (See Fig. 16.)
5.2. Validation of the model
The present model is validated through comparisons with tests as
well as with the theoretical calculations. Final deformations obtained
from the tests and numerical analysis are presented in Fig. 17. There
was an obvious gap between the stud and the concrete slab, which
resulted in the relative slippage. The maximum stress at midspan
obtained from the numerical analysis can well match the concrete
crushing from the test, so does the local buckling for the steel beam.
The numerical results accurately reflect the test failure phenomenon.
In Fig. 18, the load-slip curves obtained from the finite element anal-
ysis are compared with the test results and calculated results from
Eqs. (7) and (8). It can be observed that the key values of the finite
element analysis result exhibited a good agreement with the test and
calculated results, including ultimate bearing capacity and stiffness.
The main difference in the tests and FEA were at the yield stage of the
curves.
Table 5 presents the relative error of the experimental, FEM and cal-
culated results. Ptest, PFEM and Pcal present the ultimate bearing capacity
obtained from test, FEM and Eq. (7); Ktest, KFEM and Kcal present the stiff-
ness obtained from test, FEM and Eq. (8). For the ultimate bearing ca-
pacity of all of the specimens, the values obtained by the FEM and the
calculation were all smaller than the test data by 8%. This can be attrib-
uted to the simplified stress-strain relationship used for the steel beam.
Although the strengthening phase of the steel material was considered,
a discrepancy compared to the real constitutive model continued to be
observed. The results of Eq. (7) are approximately 10% lower than
those of the test and are more conservative due to the neglecting of
the rebar and the tensile stress of the concrete. Therefore, this calcula-
tion method is applicable in practical design. For the initial stiffness,
the values of the FEM and calculation were larger than the test data by

Fig. 16. Mesh and contact relationships.

 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92
Fig. 17. Comparison of the failure mode between test and finite element analysis.
14 and 10%. This is because (1) at the beginning of the test, the deflec-
tion of the composite beam was such a small value that the relative
error increased accordingly and because (2) the gaps between compo-
nents or the specimen and the machine could not be completely
removed, despite the preloading. However, the problem was not ob-
served in the FEM and theoretical calculations, which lead to a larger
elastic stiffness.
Because of the discreteness of concrete cracks, the deformation path
of the material in the plastic stage is uncertain. There exists a smaller
error between the results of the FEM and the tests, and the results of
the FEM and the calculation were in strong agreement with those of
the tests. It can be concluded that the assumption of the theory held,
and the finite element model was reasonable. The finite element models
successfully predicted the ultimate strength as well as the load-slip be-
havior of a composite beam with common and elastic concrete.
5.3. Parametric study
The finite element model was found to accurately simulate the behav-
ior of composite beams. Therefore, a parametric study was conducted to
89
study the effects on the static behaviors by changing the volumetric frac-
tion of rubber, the diameter of headed studs, and the degree of shear
connection.
The models are similar to FBST-4–FBST-6 in the composite beam
test. A total of 18 composite beam specimens were investigated in the
parameter study. The specimens had different volumetric fractions of
rubber ρ, namely, 0, 5, 10, and 15%; stud diameters d, namely, 16, 19,
22 mm; and degrees of shear connection γ, namely, 0.5, 0.64, 0.79 and
1.0. The size of the concrete slab and steel beam were constant to realize
changes in the 3 parameters, namely, d, ρ and γ, and γ was varied with
the number of studs. The material properties of the headed stud, struc-
tural steel and rebar were the same as those used in the FEM verified by
the test. The stress-strain curves of elastic concrete with the rubber con-
tent of 5% and 15% are obtained in Ref. [11] and shown in Fig.19.
The main results for the composite beams obtained from the para-
metric study are presented in Figs. 20–22, in which δu is the ultimate
slip near support corresponding to the ultimate load and Es is the secant
stiffness of the slippage.
Fig. 20 shows that the rubber content had little effect on the ultimate
bearing capacity, bending stiffness and slip stiffness of the composite
90 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92
Fig. 18. Comparison of load-slip curves.
beam. However, there was an increasing trend followed by the ultimate
deflection and slippage due to the increased rubber content. Compared
to common concrete, elastic concrete with a rubber content of 15% ob-
tained an increased ultimate deflection and slip of 19 and 9%, respec-
tively. It is indicated that the elastic concrete with a rubber content of
15% can simultaneously ensure a high ultimate strength and elastic stiff-
ness for composite beams and a better deformability during failure.
As shown in Fig. 21, the use of a stud of 19 mm in common concrete
resulted in a decrease in ultimate strength of 0.3% and an increase of
0.9% in the elastic concrete with a rubber content of 10%. This means
that the 19 mm stud had minimal impact on the bearing capacity. In
contrast, the 22 mm stud caused a more obvious decrease of 3.9 and
2.8% for the common concrete and elastic concrete, respectively. As a
Fig. 19. Stress-strain relationship of the elastic concrete with rubber content of 5% and 15%.
consequence, the stud with a diameter of 19 mm exhibited a similar be-
havior to that of 16 mm, and the stud with a diameter of 22 mm may re-
duce the ultimate bearing capacity. However, the disadvantageous
effects can be mitigated by the use of elastic concrete.
With a larger stud, the composite beam had a reduced deformation
and increased slip stiffness, which was in good agreement with the
test results. Therefore, it is difficult to make good use of the high
strength of the large studs in common concrete in practical applications.
However, using elastic concrete, the deformability and ductility of the
composite beam can be effectively improved. Large studs of 22 mm em-
bedded in the elastic concrete can be used to obtain the same deforma-
tion as can a small stud of 16 mm in common concrete.
In the composite beam, the composite effect is directly determined
by the degree of shear connection. The results showed that the degree
of shear connection had a small effect on the ultimate bearing capacity
of the composite beams. As shown in Fig. 22, the ultimate bearing capac-
ity increased by approximately 3% as the degree of shear connection in-
creased from 0.5 to 1.0. However, the ultimate deflection and slip were
affected more by the degree of shear connection. The two values monot-
onously decreased with increasing degree of shear connection. The ulti-
mate deflection corresponding to γ = 1 was 27% smaller than that
corresponding to γ = 0.5, and the amplitude decreased by 32% for the
ultimate slip. The change in slip was larger than that in deflection.
This is because a larger degree of shear connection strengthens the com-
posite effect, which leads to a smaller shear strength and deformation of
a single stud. Therefore, the slip stiffness was greatly increase by 51 and
39% for the composite beam using common concrete and elastic con-
crete, respectively.
The partially connected composite beam had a similar ultimate bear-
ing capacity and bending stiffness with the fully connected composite
beam, which can meet the requirements of designs. Moreover, it exhib-
ited a better deformation and ductility before the final failure. Consider-
ing the good performance and convenient welding, partially connected
elastic concrete-steel composite beams can be applied in engineering
practice.
 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92 91

Fig. 20. Effect of rubber content on the static behavior of composite beam.

Fig. 21. Effect of diameter of stud on the static behavior of composite beam.

Fig. 22. Effect of degree of shear connection on the static behavior of composite beam.
92 Y. Xing et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 123 (2016) 79–92

Table 5
Comparison of the results obtained from the tests, finite element analysis and calculations.

Specimen Ptest /kN PFEM /kN PFEM /Ptest Pcal /kN Pcal /Ptest Ktest /kN·mm−1 KFEM /kN·mm−1 KFEM /Ktest Kcal /kN·mm−1 Kcal /Ktest

FBST-1 540 489.9 0.91 470.0 0.87 33.74 37.3 1.10 33.8 1.00
FBST-2 534 485.5 0.91 469.4 0.88 30.89 35.5 1.15 33.7 1.09
FBST-3 532 483.6 0.91 476.9 0.90 34.11 40.66 1.19 37.9 1.11
FBST-4 1274 1161.6 0.91 1144.7 0.90 108.83 114.8 1.05 111.0 1.02
FBST-5 1305 1172.0 0.89 1143.4 0.88 112.50 111.8 0.99 110.4 0.98
FBST-6 1158 1124.5 0.97 1139.0 0.98 98.25 110.7 1.13 109.3 1.11

6. Conclusion effectively so that it is possible to apply large studs into practice.

Various experimental and numerical simulations have been conduct-
ed to investigate the behavior of partially connected elastic concrete-steel
composite beams. The volumetric fraction of rubber, degree of shear con-
nection and stud diameter were analyzed, and the relationship between
the structural behavior and the variables were verified. The ultimate
bearing capacity, bending stiffness, ultimate deflection and slip, and sec-
tion strain were investigated, and the following conclusions were drawn.
(1) The static failure modes of elastic concrete-steel composite beam
is similar with common composite beam. The cracks of elastic
concrete in the pure bending span were much more tiny and
evenly distributed than the cracks in common concrete, which
indicated a better crack resistance of elastic concrete. What's
more, larger degree of shear connection and diameter of stud
could cause a crush of concrete more easily.
(2) With the section of composite beam unchanged, controlled vari-
ables had less effect on ultimate bearing capacity and elastic stiff-
ness but more effect on ultimate deformation. With the use of
elastic concrete, elastic stiffness can be remained in a relative
high level while the deformability and ductility are improved
obviously at the same time. Larger degree of shear connection
can lengthen the elastic stage and retard the development and
spread of slip, but lead to a decrement of ductility by 26%. With
the same degree of shear connection, larger stud of 22 mm may
cause 9% lower ultimate bearing capacity, and an even worse
deformability and ductility.
(3) The composite beam with the degree of shear connection of 0.68
could agree with the plain section assumption, whereas the other
composite beams with smaller degree of shear connection all
had two plastic neutral axises existed in concrete and steel, re-
spectively. The increment of rubber particle and stud diameter
could lead to an earlier weakness of composite effect. The height
of plastic neutral axises in steel moved down as the load in-
creased, and it may be aggravated by larger rubber content and
stud diameter.
(4) The results of parametric analysis showed that the elastic con-
crete with a rubber content of 15% can keep a good ultimate
strength and elastic stiffness, while a better ductility of compos-
ite beam at the same time. The stud with a diameter of 22 mm
can cause the decline of ultimate strength and deformation,
which restrict its application. However, with the help of elastic
concrete, ductility of composite beam has been improved
Compared with fully shear connected composite beam, partial
shear connected ones had similar ultimate bearing capacity and
better ductility before the final failure, which indicated a good
performance to applied in the engineering practice.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the
Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 51408408 and No. 51525803).
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