Design and behavior of steel–concrete–steel sandwich plates subject to concentrated loads

This paper investigates, experimentally and analytically, the ultimate strength behavior of steel–concrete–steel (SCS) sandwich plates under concentrated loads. The proposed SCS sandwich plate consists of two external steel plates and a sandwiched concrete core. 17 quasi-static were carried out to evaluate their structural performances under concentrated loads. 20 test data in the literature were used to analyze the failure mode and load-transferring mechanisms of the SCS sandwich plate under concentrated loads. The influences of sandwich plates with different plate geometry, diameter of connectors and their spacing, and concrete core strengths were analyzed and discussed. Theoretical models were developed to predict the resistances of the connectors, flexural resistance of the SCS sandwich plate, punching resistances of the concrete core and punching resistance of the top steel plate. Design methods were then developed to predict the maximum resistance of SCS sandwich plate subject to concentrated load based on the minimum the design resistance calculated for each individual components. The accuracy of the design methods were validated against the test results. Finally, the ultimate load resistance of the SCS sandwich plate was compared with the ice-contact pressure in ISO code to check its applicability for use as ice-resisting wall in the arctic region.