Seismosoft | Earthquake Engineering Solutions

Hi,

I have, a question regarding the modeling of steel-concrete composite beams: Is it possible to model the partial shear connection between the slab and the steel beam?

I tried to use two beams (one for the slab and one for the steel beam) and to model the shear studs using link elements, but it failed because it requires the two linking nodes to be at the same positions

I am thinking of using rigid links for the shear studs, but again how can I define the force-slip law?

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance,

Dear Dr George Vasdravellis

You can define two nodes (with two node names) with the same coordinates: one node for the steel beam and other for concrete slab at each point where you connect the elements. Hence, you can define to elements with same coordinates, but they are separated and subsequently, the two elements can be connected using link elements. But it should be kept in mind to restrain all the degrees of freedom using either equal degree of freedom command or using comparatively high stiffness values except the DOF that you expect to have relative deformation.

Kushan

Dear Kushan,

I am afraid this does not solve the problem. The two beam axes must be separated and coincident to the geometric centre of the respective components (the slab and the beam).
Otherwise the behavior will be totally different..

Dear Dr George Vasdravellis,
Yes,for sure. You can separate the two elements using rigid links and then use link elements.
best regards,
Kushan

Vasdrag, hi.

The model discussed above, featuring nonlinear links connected to constrained nodes, is likely to give rise to convergence difficulties.

If this does happen to be the case, you may perhaps want to try to employ elastic elements with high stiffness values to model the rigid link connecting the slab and beam elements.

Regards,

Seismosoft Support