Bi-dimensional numerical modeling of timber–concrete slab-type structures

The behavior of timber–concrete slab-type structures is not fully understood yet. This is the case of the transversal load distribution in composite floors under concentrated loads. Included in a broader investigation, this article presents the findings for the specific case of a timber–concrete composite floor under the action of a concentrated load. This article aims at studying such transversal load distribution by means of some theoretical methods, which were compared with experimental results. Different finite elements (FE) and analytical models were used. Numerical models using different types of FE were validated based on numerical and experimental results. The analytical model used distribution coefficients. From the study, it was possible to conclude that all the methods were able to detect a non-linear transversal distribution, but there were some deviations when comparing the methods with each other. The analytical method, based on several simplifications presented a larger deviation from the numerical ones. This is discussed in more detail within this article and some practical considerations were added.