Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering

Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering

Experimental Study on Behavior of Friction-grip Bolted Shear Connectors in Composite Beams with Cold-Formed Steel Section

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
milad shakarami 1
Mehran Zeynalian 2
abdolreza ataei 3
1 Graduated from structural engineering at university of isfahan
2 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Isfahan
3 Department of civil engineering, universityof isfahan
10.22060/ceej.2026.23246.8135
Abstract
Nowadays, composite beams consisting of steel beams and concrete slabs are widely used in the construction industry. In this research, an experimental study was carried out to investigate the performance of friction-grip bolted shear connectors in composite beams with cold-formed steel sections. For this purpose, 17 full-scale push-out tests were examined according to EC4 in order to investigate the performance of this connection. Of particular interests were load-slip curves, the maximum shear capacity, ultimate slip (ductility) and failure modes. Experimental results show that the behavior of this connection is different from that of headed-stud shear connector.The diameter and strength of bolt and thickness of cold-formed steel section have the most critical effects on the shear capacity and ductility of these connections with a maximum increase of 67.8, 32.87 and 263.6%, respectively. The results also highlight that the predominant failure mode in all specimens is bearing. The ultimate slip obtained from the experimental results with an average of 11.36 mm in all specimens also shows that these connections have the desired slip characteristic of the EC4 code (=6 mm), therefore they are considered ductile connections. The results showed that the behavior of these connections is different from the behavior of headed-stud shear connectors, and the loading of the connection is done in three stages.
Keywords
Cold-formed Steel Section
Deconstructable Shear Connectors
Composite Floor Joists
Friction-grip Bolts
Push-out Test
Subjects
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Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering
Volume 58, Issue 2
2026
Pages 171-196