Flexural behavior of web embedded steel-concrete composite beam

This paper discussed a new web-embedded steel–concrete composite beam (WTSCB). The WTSCB consists of an inverted T-section steel section and a concrete slab. Five kinds of new shear connectors were designed at the web top and embedded in the concrete slab. In comparison with the conventional composite beam, shear connector welds are not necessary in the WTSCB. Push-out tests were conducted to investigate the shear property of the connectors, in which the load transferring mechanism of shear connector was researched and the calculation method of shear resistance was proposed. Then bending tests, considering effective width of concrete slab and shear connection types, were conducted on ten WTSCB specimens. Bending failure mode and excellent deformability were presented in WTSCB specimens. Moreover, the design methods including shear connection degree, bending capacity and elastic bending stiffness were proposed based on Eurocode 4.