Flexural Behavior of Steel Plate-Concrete Composite Beams

In this paper, the steel plate-concrete composite (SPCC) beam is developed, in which traditional steel beam in the steel-concrete composite beam is replaced by a steel plate. The aim to develop this type of composite beam is to provide a theoretical basis for design of SPCC structures and SPCC-strengthened structures. In order to investigate the flexural behavior of SPCC beams, tests were conducted on five specimens with loading cases of four-point or three-point bending. All the beams were identical in geometry, longitudinal reinforcement, stirrup, and concrete strength but various in steel plate thickness, shear connection degree, shear span length and cut-off position of steel plate. The structural behavior of the tested SPCC beams, including strain, deflection, crack width, load carrying capacity and deformability, etc., were measured and analyzed. Based on test results, it can be concluded that by means of appropriate shear connection degree and anchorage length, steel plate and concrete can work together very well and the SPCC beams have a very good ductility. The ultimate strength of the SPCC beams can be calculated by means of the same plastic method as reinforced concrete beams.