Transverse distribution of internal forces in timber–concrete floors under external point and line loads

• Transversal distribution of concentrated loads in timber–concrete slabs was studied.
• Experimental tests in five composite floor specimens were performed.
• Effects of different parameters in the load distribution were investigated.
• Experimental results were compared with a developed numerical model.
• Distribution of load showed to be significantly affected by the span.

Some aspects of the structural behaviour timber–concrete floors are still not fully known. This is the case of transverse load distribution for point and line loads. This article presents a study on timber–concrete floors subjected to point and line loads.A set of composite floors, each comprising five beams, was tested in order to evaluate how some parameters might affect the load distribution. These results were compared to those obtained with a numerical model developed by the authors.Typically, the beam underneath the load takes the highest percentage of the applied load and the distribution for the remaining beams is significantly affected by the span. For composite slabs with medium spans (L = 4.00 m), when the load is applied at the central beam midspan only 37% of the load is received by this beam, with 69% of the load being carried by the composite T-beams adjacent to the middle one and the remaining share (about −6%) resulting from the relieving in the load received by the outer beams.