The unilateral contact problem in composite slabs: Experimental study and numerical treatment

The shear connection between concrete and profiled steel sheeting in composite slabs is a highly nonlinear problem as far as boundary conditions, material and geometry are concerned. It can be treated as a unilateral contact problem where sticking, sliding and frictional phenomena at the interface of the bodies are all present. Unilateral contact problems, where the contact and noncontact regions between bodies or structures are not a priori known, can be described by the use of nonmonotone material laws. This leads to a hemivariational inequality, which describes the problem under consideration mathematically. The study is also extended experimentally and numerically. The results of both analyses are presented and compared.