Experimental and Analytical Investigations on Short-Term Behavior of Glubam-Concrete Composite Beams

Abstract

This paper describes the results of short-term bending tests on glued laminated bamboo (glubam) and concrete composite (BCC) beams. Four types of connection details were designed and tested: continuous steel mesh (SM), screw connector (SC), notch connector (NC) and pre-tightening notched connector (PNC). Experimental variables include length and numbers of connectors. Four-point bending tests to failure were performed on nine full-scale BCC beams with 8.0 m long. All BCC beams with different connections exhibited satisfactory performance under short-term loading conditions. The 200 mm long notch connection is recommended for composite beams for higher load carrying capacity and composite action as well as the merit of fewer connectors. The semi-prefabricated composite beam using PNC shows the similar bending capacity compared with the corresponding casting in situ BCC, indicating a good prospect in the prefabricated and assembled structures. A finite element (FE) model is presented and shown to predict the behaviors of the tested specimens in a satisfactory manner. The γ–method, provided by Annex B of Eurcode 5, overestimates the load carrying capacity of BCC beams at ultimate limit state (ULS), by a margin of 116–190%. The upper and lower limit spacing of connections tested in this study are also presented based on the numerical analysis.