Experimental study of steel-concrete composite beams with slab opening

Abstract This study investigates experimentally the effect of openings in the concrete slab of the composite beams. Composite beams consisted of concrete slab connected with steel I-beams by steel headed stud connectors is used in the study with eleven specimens. The test specimens are designed to test and failed in flexure. The test specimens are classified depending on the variable parameters into the following groups: control sample; opening ratio; ratio the short to the long dimension of opening; thickness of the concrete slab; grade of compressive strength; strengthen of opening by steel plate. The results of the study indicate that the general trend in the ultimate load is to increase with increasing thickness of the concrete slab and increasing the compressive strength of concrete. While the ultimate load decreased when increasing the opening ratio because decreasing the effective width of the concrete slab and the cracks develop when the opening was near to the applied loads. Also, the distribution of shear connectors in place of opening on both sides and present the diagonal reinforcing rebars about the opening minimize from the significant decrease for the ultimate load.