Numerical analysis of proposed tubular perfobond shear connector

Abstract

The most common means for connection between steel and concrete is mechanical, usually through shear connectors. Currently, numerous shear connectors are available to designers which have been subject of study in the past decades. Eurocode 4 prescribes a minimum characteristic slip capacity for the connector to be considered as ductile. Thus, this paper proposes an alternative tubular perfobond shear connector encompassing the resistance of the conventional Perfobond and providing the required ductility prescribed by the code. The study has been conducted using the finite element method through push-out tests to determine the connector resistance and slip capacity. The influences of the most relevant parameters and properties were determined. Due to the lack of results on the tubular perfobond connectors, the experimental results on Perfobond connectors available in the literature were previously used to validate the numerical model. The proposed connector has presented a satisfactory performance and could be considered viable.