Longitudinal shear capacity of the slabs of composite beams

The longitudinal shear failure of the slab of composite beams is constrained to occur at a predetermined shear surface. A method for calculating the longitudinal shear capacity of the slab of simply-supported steel–concrete composite beams is presented. The method is based on analyzing the stresses at failure of the concrete elements located at the slab shear surface.A design chart based on estimating the transverse normal stress required within the concrete slab to achieve the full ultimate flexural capacity of the composite beam is proposed. Alternatively, using elastic–plastic stress distribution across the concrete slab, the longitudinal compressive force due to bending and hence the applied moment can be predicted for any longitudinal shear capacity of the slab. The proposed design and analysis when compared to previous tests and analysis showed good agreement.The slab width and the shear span of the composite beam are found to be two important parameters which cannot be neglected when estimating the longitudinal shear capacity of the slab. These two parameters have been neglected in the empirical solutions previously adopted.