V-shaped shear connector for composite steel-concrete beam

Shear connectors are fundamental components for composite steel-concrete beams. Their function is to bring about a good degree of interaction between the concrete slab and the steel profile. The stud bolt connector is currently the most adopted solution, mainly because of its high productivity and practicability on construction sites. However, there are situations where stud bolts or the appropriate equipment for their application may not be available. Alternative shear connectors can substitute stud bolts. In this article, a new V-shaped shear connector is proposed. It was conceived to confine concrete in a larger frontal contact area and be easy to install and construct. With more contact area, the proposed connector distributes the shear force more uniformly, avoiding high stress concentration compared to the stud bolt option. The V-shaped connector has a higher moment of inertia. It is less flexible than stud bolts and U-connectors under bending. In this research, different V-shaped connectors, with varying thicknesses, are studied experimentally and numerically with push-out tests and FE modeling. The results are compared to standard stud bolts and show that the proposed V-shaped connector may be utilized as an alternative shear connector in composite steel-concrete beams. An equation for the shear resistance prediction of V-connectors is also developed.