Experimental Study on Mechanical Behavior of PBL Shear Connectors

Abstract

Perfobond rib connectors (PBLs) are widely applied to transfer the shear force in steel-concrete composite members. To investigate the mechanical behavior of PBL shear connectors, push-out tests were carried out under static loading, and the effects of end-bearing mode, concrete strength, diameter of holes, thickness of the penetrated plate, number of holes, and diameter of penetrating rebar on the shear capacity and shear stiffness were considered. Moreover, the failure modes of all specimens were analyzed, and the test results were compared with the shear strength obtained from previous models. Because of the discrepancies between the test results and the predictive results, a new method for predicting the shear capacity of the PBL connector was put forward according to the deformation compatibility conditions. In addition, an equation was proposed to evaluate the shear stiffness of the PBL connector based on elastic foundation beam theory, and the load-slip curves of the multihole PBL connector were established on the basis of shear stiffness using the numerical regression analysis method. By comparison, it was found that the results determined by the proposed formulas for evaluating the shear resistance, shear stiffness, and load-slip curves agreed well with the test results, and that these formulas can provide good references for the applications of PBL connectors.