SHEAR AND MOMENT BEHAVIOR OF

COMPOSITE CONCRETE BEAMS

A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY IN CIVIL
ENGINEERING

MOHANNAD HUSAIN MOHSIN AL-SHERRAWI

(M.Sc.)

SHAWAL 1421 DECEMBER 2000

 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 General:
Composite construction consists of using two materials together in one
structural unit and using each material to its best advantage. The number
of combinations is almost endless; steel and concrete, timber and
concrete, timber and steel, precast and cast-in-place concrete, etc.
Composite construction is generally economic when a floor or
bridge deck is desired to be in situ, as opposed to precast, and its total
depth is required to be less than for in situ reinforced concrete
construction, or when durability (absence of cracks at working loads) is
required (e.g. bridge decks).

1.1.1 Composite concrete beam:

The composite beam is actually a built-up member, using two different
materials and using each material to its best advantage. The usual
composite beam consists of three main components: the structural beam
(of whatever material), the plate or slab which is added, and some type of
connector to hold the beam and slab together.
The structural beam is usually a material, which carries tensile
stresses efficiently, and the slab is concrete, which has good compressive
strength.
The composite concrete beam or girder usually consists of a precast
or cast in situ reinforced or prestressed reinforced concrete beam and
cast-in-place reinforced concrete slab tied together to act as a unit. The
shear connectors between the beam and the slab should tie the
components together well enough so that they act as a monolithic T-
beam. Typical section of building and bridge composite reinforced
concrete flexural beam is shown in Fig. (1.1). The principles involved
are, of course, the same for other types of sections, such as those shown
in Fig. (1.2). Primarily because of the better quality control of precast
units, it is usually economical to use higher concrete strengths for the
precast girders than for the cast-in-place decks (or toppings).

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 cast-in-place slab be

h
precastbeam
precast beam

bw

Fig. (1.1) Typical composite reinforced concrete beam.

1.1.2 The shear connector:

In the composite beam, the purpose of the shear connector is to tie the
beam and slab together and force them to act as a unit. In order to
accomplish this, the shear connector must do two things. It must resist the
horizontal force that develops between the beam and slab, as the
composite member is loaded. Second, it should hold the slab down
against the beam and prevent uplift of the slab as the unit is loaded. If the
beam and slab are allowed to slip relative to each other as the beam is
loaded, there is little or no composite action.
In building works, where loads are primarily static, the natural bond
between the beams and slab furnished a valuable reserve of strength. In
bridge works, the moving loads and impact probably destroy the natural
bond after a very few load cycles.
Johnson (1975) discussed the behavior of flitched beams with no
shear connectors with full slip and shear connectors with no slip (i.e., full
interaction), as shown in Fig. (1.3). It may be shown that the maximum
bending stress is reduced by 50% by net, providing shear connection,
while the maximum shearing stress is unchanged. Also, the mid-span
deflection with fully effective shear connectors (no slip at the interface) is
25% of that in the case with no shear connectors (in this special case).
Thus the provision of shear connectors increases both the strength and
stiffness of a beam of given size, which leads to a reduction in the beam
size for a given loading.

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 Cast-in-place
Cast-in-place

Precast
Precast

Cast-in-place Cast-in-place

Precast Precast

Cast-in-place Cast-in-place

Precast Precast

Cast-in-place Cast-in-place

Hollow
Precast box
Precast

Fig. (1.2) Various types of composite concrete sections.

1.1.3 Partial composite action:

In actual practice with concrete beam and slab construction, zero
composite action is impossible because there is always some degree of
bond and friction between the slab and the beam. Similary, 100%
composite action is impossible because there is always some small degree
of slip, no matter how rigidily the shear connection may be designed.
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 b f v
w

x No interaction
L Full interaction

a. elevation b. section c. bending stress d. shearing stress

ds slip
dx

x x
δmax

L x
No interaction
Partial interaction

e. deflected shape f. slip strains g. slip

Fig. (1.3) Slip and partial interaction for two rectangular beams
(Johnson, 1975).

Fig. (1.4) shows the strain diagram in composite concrete beam with
different types of interaction. It can be seen that for the case of no
interaction, each of the beam and slab act separately (Fig. (1.4a)). While
the composite beam with full interaction behave as a single monolithic
beam (Fig. (1.4c)). The behavior of a partially composite beam is in
between (Fig. (1.4b)).
The evaluation of the strength of the joint between precast concrete
beams and cast-in-place concrete slabs has been the subject of
considerable research. However, the behavior of the joint during the
loading has not been well studied by previous researchers. When the joint
in a composite concrete girder is unable to transmit all internal forces
from one part of the section to the other part in the same manner as if the
entire section were structural concrete cast in one piece, the girder is only
partially composite with stiffness characteristics between those of a fully
composite and a two-piece girder.
Current design methods rely heavily on empirically derived
equations based on experimental results of ultimate strength tests of the
joint.

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 (a) (b) (c)

Fig. (1.4) Strain diagrams in (a) noncomposite, (b) partially composite,

(c) composite beam.

1.2 Advantages and disadvantages:

1.2.1 Advantages:
Compared to in-situ concrete construction, the advantages of composite
construction may be expressed as follows:
1. Construction will be rapid.
2. Generally there will be a reduction in site costs as scaffolding,
shuttering, and other temporary supports will not be needed in such
quantities (if at all) as for in-situ concrete work.
3. There will be considerably less in-situ concrete work thus reducing the
amount of wet work on site, which in turn reduces the demand for
local site labor, and the import of raw materials.
4. Casting in the precast works is usually unimpeded by adverse weather
conditions.
5. Precast beams can be made by mass production methods and there
should be rapid re-use of molds. It should be said here that molds can
be made to a precession not possible on site and more intricate work
can be carried out. However, such molds are expensive to make and
there should be a considerable amount of repetition in the design to
enable economic use to be made of them.
6. Beams can be made to a good, even excellent, standard due to the use
of a trained and specialized labor force working under factory
conditions.

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7. Precast beam can be inspected before it is erected and there is an
opportunity to reject any substandard work before incorporation in the
structure.
In addition to that, the principal advantage of composite construction
is that significantly stiffer and stronger beams can be obtained as
compared to the same members without composite action. Also when
using precast construction in seismic zones, the composite slab or topping
is normally required in order to serve as a diaphragm connecting the
varies units.

1.2.2 Disadvantages:
There are, of course, disadvantages, which may be summarized as
follows:
1. The joint between the precast beam and the cast-in-situ deck needs a
special design and a preparation before casting the deck.
2. Some additional reinforcement may be required for lifting and
transporting precast beams. It has to be appreciated that a precast
beam has to be designed not only to function as part of a total
structure but also for the load condition pertaining during lifting and
transport.
3. If the beams are large in size problems can arise concerning
transportation and lifting costs.

1.3 Objective and scope:

Different codes and specifications present rules for design of composite
concrete beam. While such design rules are adequate for many situations,
on occasions a more detailed method of analysis is required which takes
account of most the principal parameters.
The finite element method is one of the methods widely used to
explore the behavior of composite steel-concrete beam, but no attempt
has been done yet to analysis composite concrete-concrete beam by the
finite element method. This method has found increasing use in the
design office with the increasing efficiency of computers. However,
analysis of composite beam is complicated by a structural discontinuity
with slip and vertical separation between the two components (beam and
slab) on their common interface. Finite element representation of those
movements is usually achieved by using special elements.

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 The present work is devoted to the study of the behavior of
reinforced concrete composite beams during short term loading using
finite element method to analyze them.

1.4 Thesis layout:

This work consists of seven chapters. Chapter one introduces the problem
to be solved in the present study. Chapter two reviewed the available tests
on composite concrete beams. Experimental works done by others on
shear transfer between two concretes are also reviewed. Chapter three
presents the recommendations for construction and design of composite
concrete beam. Chapter four is concerned with the review of the various
material models presented in the literature together with the models
adopted in this study to identify and represent material properties and
behavior for concrete, steel, bond-slip, dowel action, and shear friction
between two concretes, cast in different times, throughout the range of
load applications. The formulations of the element matrices are presented
in Chapter five. The nonlinear finite element formulation of the
reinforced concrete problem, and the numerical algorithm adopted in this
study for static nonlinear analysis is also presented with suitable
convergence criteria. In Chapter six, several examples of experimental
tests available in the literature are analyzed. A parametric study deals
with shear and bending moment capacity of a composite beam is
presented. Finally, a summary of the conclusions drawn from this study
and recommendations for further research are given in Chapter seven.