An innovative reversible shear connection for efficient steel‐timber composite floor beams

Abstract

The challenges the construction industry is facing to reduce its environmental impact and to efficiently use the available resources lead to an extensive search for sustainable construction alternatives. In the last decades, competitive engineered wood products (EWPs) appeared in the market. The synergy between EWPs and steel, in the so-called steel-timber composite (STC) form, can be an efficient and sustainable solution for the execution of building floors and decks. Various shear connections for STC have been developed. However, the majority relies in the dowel-type connectors, with limited mechanical performance strongly affected by the flexibility of the EWPs. Furthermore, the nonlinear and permanent deformations often developing in a low range of loading may hinder reuse of the materials and strongly limit the nondestructive disassembly at end of life. Thus, this paper presents the development of a new reversible shear connector for efficient STC floor beams meeting the needs of an optimize use of construction materials through reuse. First, a brief overview of existing shear connections for STC is given, identifying their potential and limitations. Then, the concept of the new proposed connection is exposed. Finally, a preliminary assessment through analytical calculations and numerical simulations is done, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed shear connection towards a designed for disassembly STC composite beam.