Headed steel stud anchors in composite structures, Part II: Tension and interaction

The 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings is the leading specification for composite construction in the US. However, these provisions do not provide a recommendation for computing the strength of headed steel stud anchors (traditionally used as shear connectors) under tension or combined tension and shear. Headed stud anchors are subjected to these types of forces in composite structures such as infill walls, composite coupling beams, the connection region of composite columns, or composite column bases. While the ACI 318-08 Building Code, the PCI Handbook, 6th edition, and CEB Design of Fastenings in Concrete include provisions for such conditions, those provisions are geared for more general anchorage conditions than are typically seen in composite construction. It would thus be beneficial to have design guidance specifically for the case of headed steel stud anchors subjected to tension or combined tension and shear in composite construction, evaluated within the context of the AISC and EC-4 Specifications. In this work, different strength equations to compute the nominal tensile strength of a headed stud are reviewed and compared to experimental results. The resulting recommendations seek to ensure a ductile failure in the steel shank instead of a brittle failure within the concrete. Several criteria are proposed to ensure that ductile failure controls in composite construction, and, different headed stud configurations and detailing reinforcement recommendations are proposed to improve the ductile behavior of headed stud anchors subjected to tension and combined tension and shear.