Abstract

Steel-concrete-steel sandwich beam (double skin composite beam - DSC) experimental results including axial forces in steel plates and shear forces between the layers are compared with full and partial interaction theories. The flexibility of shear stud connectors on both tension and compression faces are taken into account in the partial interaction analysis including the influence of frictional forces between the concrete and external steel plates at the supports and load points. Quasi-static test results on DSC beams are compared with the theoretical solutions based on partial interaction theory assuming realistic material and shear connector properties. The comparison of results indicates that the proposed theoretical method shows good correlation with real behaviour and may be reliably used for the analysis of simply supported DSC beams.

Key words:  Steel-concrete-steel sandwich beams, double skin composite construction, partial interaction, full interaction, shear connectors, frictional force, quasi-static loading.