Mechanical behavior of prefabricated steel-concrete composite beams considering the clustering degree of studs

The mechanical behaviors of the prefabricated steel-concrete composite beams are usually affected by the strength and the number of shear studs. Furthermore, the discrete degree of the arrangement for shear stud clusters, being defined as the clustering degree of shear stud λ in this paper, is an important factor for the mechanical properties of composite beams, even if the shear connection degree is unchanged. This paper uses an experimental and calculation method to investigate the influence of λ on the mechanical behavior of the composite beam. Five specimens (with different λ but having the same shear connection degree) of prefabricated composite beams are designed to study the ultimate supporting capacity, deformation, slip and shearing stiffness of composite beams. Experimental results are compared with the conventional slip calculation method (based on the influence of λ) of prefabricated composite beams. The results showed that the stiffness in the elastoplastic stage is reduced when λ is greater than 0.333, while the supporting capacity of beams has little affected by the change in λ. The slip distribution along the beam length tends to be zig-zagged due to the clustering of studs, and the slip difference increases with the increase of λ.