Numerical Analysis on Shear Behavior of Grouped Head Stud Shear Connectors between Steel Girders and Precast Concrete Slabs with High-Strength Concrete-Filled Shear Pockets

Abstract

This study numerically investigated the shear behavior of novel composite shear connectors, which consisted of grouped head studs embedded in high-strength concrete-filled (HSC-filled) shear pockets. The shear pockets were prefabricated and retained open in the precast concrete slab. The finite-element (FE) models were established and verified with the full-scale test results. The validated FE models were further used for parametric studies. In this study, the shear strength of grouped head stud shear connectors almost linearly increased with the stud diameter and infilling concrete strength. However, the stud height had little effect on the shear strength. Increasing the stud spacing and slab thickness could not enhance the shear capacity of composite shear connectors. In addition, the precast method of the shear pocket also had no reduction in the shear strength. Finally, the parametric analysis results were compared with the current design codes. It was observed that those specifications almost had conservative predictions on the shear strength of grouped head studs because the interaction between the concrete crushing and head stud fracture was not considered. A more accurate analytical equation was proposed to predict the head stud shear capacity. The average values of predicted/tested results for all specimens were varied from 0.949 to 1.022, which indicated that the equation could accurately evaluate the shear strength of grouped head studs in high-strength concrete.