Modelling short-term monotonic response of timber–concrete composite structures

Abstract

Timber–concrete composite is an efficient hybrid construction material that exploits the advantageous properties of timber and concrete. The use of shear connectors enables the two dissimilar materials to act together, resulting in an increase in global stiffness as well as load-carrying capacity. As this composite material is becoming increasingly more popular in the construction industry, there is a need to develop analysis tools that have general applicability to timber–concrete composite systems with variations in loading schemes, specimen configurations, materials, and types of shear connectors. One such tool, a generic two-dimensional nonlinear finite element model, is proposed in this paper; it is verified through numerical simulations of six experiment series carried out by other researchers. Good agreement between experimentally observed behaviour and numerical simulations was generally obtained.