Experimental study on semi-rigid composite joints with steel beams and precast hollowcore slabs

The concept of semi-rigid composite connection has been widely researched in the past; however, most of the researches are limited to composite joints with metal deck flooring and solid concrete slabs. Composite construction incorporating precast concrete hollowcore slabs (HCU) is a recently developed composite floor system for buildings. The research on the structural behaviour of the semi-rigid composite joints with HCU is new and without any previous experimental database. In this paper, eight full-scale tests of beam-to-column semi-rigid composite joints with steel beams and precast hollowcore slabs are reported. The variables are stud spacing, degree of the shear connections, area of the longitudinal reinforcement and slab thickness. The test set-up and instrumentation is described in detail. The experimental behaviour is analysed and based on the test data the structural behaviour of these semi-rigid composite joints is discussed. Based on the experimental data, a simplified method to predict rotation and moment capacity for this type of composite connection is proposed.