Analysis of shear connection design methods in continuous steel-concrete composite beams

In this work the behaviour of continuous steel-concrete composite beams with different shear connection distributions obtained from two design methods (i.e. Eurocode 4 and an alternative proposed approach) is analysed. For this purpose a finite element model specifically developed for the nonlinear analysis of steel-concrete composite beams is adopted. This finite element model includes material nonlinearity of concrete, beam steel and reinforcement steel as well as slab-beam nonlinear partial interaction due to the deformable shear connection. The inclusion of the partial interaction in the composite beam model provides information not only on the slab-beam interface slip and shear force but also enables to model the failure of shear connectors. In this way it is possible to analyse and quantify the effect of shear connector distributions on the global and local response of continuous steel-concrete composite beams, both under service load levels and at collapse.