Shear strength of the connection between a steel coupling beam and a reinforced concrete shear wall in a hybrid wall system

No specific guidelines are available for computing the shear strength of the connection between a steel coupling beam and a reinforced concrete shear wall in a hybrid wall system. There were carried out analytical and experimental studies on the connection between a steel coupling beam and a concrete shear wall in a hybrid wall system. The bearing stress at failure in the concrete below the embedded steel coupling beam section is related to the concrete compressive strength and the ratio of the width of the embedded steel coupling beam section to the thickness of the shear walls. Experiments were carried out to determine the factors influencing the shear strength of the connection between a steel coupling beam and a reinforced concrete shear wall. The test variables included the reinforcement details that confer a ductile behaviour in the connection between a steel coupling beam and a shear wall, i.e., the auxiliary stud bolts attached to the steel beam flanges and the transverse ties at the top and the bottom steel beam flanges. In addition, additional test were conducted to verify the strength equations of the connection between a steel coupling beam and a reinforced concrete shear wall. The proposed equations in this study were in good agreement with both our test results and other test data from the literature.