Time-Dependent Response of Spatially Curved Steel-Concrete Composite Members. II: Curved-Beam Experimental Modeling

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive experimental study of the time-dependent creep and shrinkage behavior of a simply supported steel-concrete composite beam that is curved in its plan; it is a companion to the first paper that presented a numerical model for spatially curved members for which a beam curved in plan is a limiting case. The full-scale beam was tested under sustained uniformly distributed loading for approximately 250 days; its time-dependent deformations and strains were monitored throughout the period of loading. Separate companion concrete specimens were tested under the same ambient conditions as the test beam to determine the creep and shrinkage characteristics of the concrete component of the beam. The test observations show that the creep and shrinkage behavior of the concrete component has a significant effect on the long-term response of curved composite beams. The experiment also provides benchmark data to test the validity of theoretical models and shows that the developed numerical technique is able to predict the deflections of the test beam acurately; hence, it is able to provide a reliable computational model from which to formulate design guidance.