Effect of Steel Tube Thickness on Flexural Behavior of Concrete Composite Beams Using Different Section Shapes

Abstract

The current paper aims to investigate the effect of steel tube thickness on the structural behavior of concrete composite beams with different steel tube sections. The experimental work of this study included a series of bending tests. The loading type used to study this effect on bending behavior of steel tubes was simply supported beam tested by two points load. Six composite beam specimens were performed and tested up to failure using three shapes of steel section (hexagonal, square and rectangular), every two specimens have the same shape of steel section. The type of shear connector was the headed stud for all specimens and to investigate the effect of thickness, this study used two thicknesses of steel tube sections of (2) mm and (3) mm. The tests showed improvement in the flexural behavior by increasing thickness of different steel section shapes, (50%) increasing in steel tube thickness led to increase the ultimate load by (32% - 34%). The ultimate slip at the ultimate load, for each specimen, is decreased by increasing the thickness of steel tube, the range of decreasing is ( 3.55% - 30.16% ).