Behaviour of Steel-Concrete-Steel Sandwich Beams with Novel Enhanced C-Channels

Abstract

As the load increases, most composite beams generally experience failure in both shear and flexural behavior. This outcome highlights the critical challenges of achieving sufficient strength and structural integrity in such beams. The proposed study has used the cold-formed behavior of an Enhanced C-channel (EC) shear connectors and Light Weight Concrete (LWC) to examine the new Steel-Lightweight Concrete-Steel sandwich Beams (SLCSB). The ECs have provided significant shear resistance at the faceplate-LWC interfacial interface and the tension separation resistance for faceplates (cold form steel) from the LWC core. Cold Form Steel (CFS) is the most often used substitute because of its high productivity and practicality in the field. Four different composite beams are examined in the proposed research with different ECs spacing. The beams’ top and bottom face plates are covered using CFS (1.6 mm). In addition to that, two different types of shear connectors are used. Two unique longitudinal spacing of 100 mm and 150 mm are also used for one with lipped ECs and without lipped ECs. Importantly, self-tapping screws are used to secure ECs in place between the top and bottom of the face plates. The effectiveness of the composite beams with various shear connector spacing subjected to a two-point load test is assessed through a series of experiments.