Investigation of the Load-Bearing Behaviour of CoSFB-Dowels

This Thesis is the first PhD thesis written about CoSFB-Dowels. Therefore, focus of the scientific work presented here, was on the identification of parameters influencing the load-bearing behaviour in general and on parameters contributing to the load-bearing capacity of CoSFB-Dowels in detail. A CoSFB-Dowel is an innovative shear connector for steel-concrete composite slim-floor beams. It consists of circular openings drilled in the web of the steel section with reinforcement bars passing through and filled with normal concrete in-situ.
Push-out tests have been performed already in an earlier research project initiated by the author. In this Thesis, detailed analysis of the test results was done and a finite element model developed simulating the push-out tests, which led to an improved understanding of the overall load-bearing behaviour. Further, the numerical model was used to identify and to evaluate components contributing to the stiffness, to the linear-elastic load and to the maximum load. The findings of this research led to the formulation of a mechanical model and an analytical method to evaluate the load-bearing capacity of a CoSFB-Dowel. The analytical method was validated with the test results. This Thesis is concluded by a proposal allowing for a conservative determination of the design resistance of CoSFB-Dowels.