Effects of the combination of axial and shear loading on the behaviour of headed stud steel anchors

Composite structures are seeing an increasing use in building construction. Not only are composite steel–concrete beams used for flooring systems, composite structural walls are becoming increasingly popular due to their use as a primary lateral resistance system for building structures. In both of these systems, tensile axial loading will cause both the concrete and headed steel anchor to be exposed to tensile forces. This paper describes the finite element modelling and nonlinear analysis for evaluating the structural performance of shear connections in composite beams with both solid and profiled steel sheeting slabs when subjected to both axial and shear forces. A three dimensional non-linear finite element model using a general purpose finite element software program ABAQUS is developed herein to study the behaviour of steel anchors for both solid and profiled steel sheeting slabs. The pertinent results obtained from the finite element analysis were verified against experimental results. The results indicate that the strength and the load–slip behaviour of composite steel–concrete beams is greatly influenced by the combination of loading conditions. Moreover, it is observed from the comparison that the proposed non-linear model is capable of predicting the ultimate strength of the steel anchors to an acceptable accuracy.