Shear capacity of concrete-filled steel plate composite coupling beams

•An analytical model for the shear capacity of composite coupling beam was proposed.•The critical variables determining the shear capacity were investigated.•Design equations for the shear capacity of composite coupling beam were developed.

The concrete-filled steel plate (CFSP) composite coupling beam is a newly developed form of coupling beam that possesses high deformation and energy dissipation capacities. In this paper, the shear capacity of concrete-filled steel plate composite coupling beams was investigated. An analytical model was proposed based on the force mechanism of the composite coupling beam and was proved to have adequate accuracy compared with the available test results. The shear capacity of the composite coupling beam was found to be governed by flexural strength, shear strength, or flexural-shear strength, depending on the material and geometrical properties of the coupling beam. By incorporating the effect of flexural-shear interaction, a unified equation was finally developed.