Flexural Behavior of Composite Beam with I-Shaped Cross-Section Shear Connector

<p>In recent years, supertall buildings above a height of 450 meter have been built continuously in the world, especially in China and the Middle East. In order to meet structural performance of the supertall buildings, structural systems with excellent seismic performance and wind resistance performance are required. In the structural system, mega-column located at the building perimeter is a key structural member and it is expected to have large tensile, compressive, flexural, shear and torsional strength. Therefore, it is desirable that the steel and the concrete in the mega-column can be integrated tightly. In this study, I-shaped cross-section shear connector is proposed to prevent the slip between steel and concrete. Three-point flexural tests of a I-shaped cross-section steel and concrete composite beam specimen with I-shaped cross-section shear connectors and a conventional I-shaped cross-section steel and concrete composite beam specimen without I-shaped cross-section shear connector were carried out to investigate the effect of I-shaped cross-section shear connector on the inelastic behavior of a flexural member. The experimental results showed that the composite beam specimen with I-shaped cross-section shear connectors exhibited higher flexural strength and it is expected that the proposed I-shaped cross-section shear connector has a potential of being applied to the mega-column in the tomorrow’s supertall buildings.</p>