Web-shear strength of steel-concrete composite beams with prestressed wide flange and hollowed steel webs: Experimental and practical approach

In the buildings with long spans and high floors, such as logistics warehouses and semiconductor factories, it is difficult to install supporting posts under beams during construction. Therefore, the size of structural members becomes larger inevitably, resulting in a significant increase in construction costs. Accordingly, a prestressed hybrid wide flange (PHWF) beam with hollowed steel webs was developed, which can reduce construction costs by making multiple openings in the web of the steel member embedded in concrete. However, since multiple openings exist and prestress is introduced only into the bottom flange concrete, it is necessary to identify the shear resistance mechanism of the PHWF beam. This study presents experimental shear tests of PHWF beams with hollowed steel webs. Four PHWF beams with cast-in-place (CIP) concrete were fabricated, with key variables being the width and spacing of the steel webs embedded in the concrete and the presence of shear reinforcing bars, and web-shear tests were conducted. The shear behavior of the PHWF beam, including crack patterns, strain behavior of steel webs, and composite action between the prestressed bottom flange and CIP concrete, were measured and analyzed comprehensively. The test results showed that the steel web resists external shear forces through shear deformation when its width is sufficiently large, but as its width decreased, it exerted its shear contribution through normal deformation in a manner similar to that of shear reinforcing bars. In addition, it was found that stirrups placed on the cross section where the steel web does not exist contribute to improving the shear strength and deformation capacity of the member. Based on the shear behavior of the specimens, a straightforward calculation method was proposed to estimate the web-shear strength of PHWF beams with CIP concrete, and it provided a good estimation of the shear strength of PHWF beams, more accurate than the existing code equations.