An efficient and novel strategy for control of cracking, creep and shrinkage effects in steel-concrete composite beams

Steel-concrete composition is widely used in the construction due to efficient utilization of materials. The service load behavior of composite structures is significantly affected by cracking, creep and shrinkage effects in concrete. In order to control these effects in concrete slab, an efficient and novel strategy has been proposed by use of fiber reinforced concrete near interior supports of a continuous beam. Numerical study is carried out for the control of cracking, creep and shrinkage effects in composite beams subjected to service load. A five span continuous composite beam has been analyzed for different lengths of fiber reinforced concrete near the interior supports. For this purpose, the hybrid analytical-numerical procedure, developed by the authors, for service load analysis of composite structures has been further improved and generalized to make it applicable for composite beams having spans with different material properties along the length. It is shown that by providing fiber reinforced concrete even in small length near the supports; there can be a significant reduction in cracking as well as in deflections. It is also observed that the benefits achieved by providing fiber reinforced concrete over entire span are not significantly more as compared to the use of fiber reinforced concrete in certain length of beam near the interior supports in continuous composite beams.