Experimental research on bearing mechanism of perfobond rib shear connectors

•A novel push-out test method for perfobond rib connector was proposed.•Failure modes of perfobond rib connector were obtained.•Several influence factors were investigated.

Push-out test is widely used to study the bearing capacity of perfobond rib shear connectors. Due to the discrepancies in both the specimen size and the test procedure adopted by different researchers, the obtained results did not coincide well with each other. On the basis of the push-out test methods by previous researches, a novel push-out test technique for perfobond rib connector was proposed. 7 different groups, totally 21 push-out test specimens, were fabricated and tested. By means of the proposed test method, load–slip relationships of the specimens were obtained and their failure modes were observed. Satisfied reproducibility of load–slip curves in each group proved the rationality of the test method proposed in this paper. According to the failure phenomenon in ultimate loading state, failure mechanism of perfobond rib shear connectors was analyzed and the analysis results indicated that brittle failure always occurs in perfobond rib connectors. Based on the test results, influence of the connector configuration on the load bearing capacity was discussed.