Experimental and numerical study of steel-timber composite (STC) beams

The use of hybrid steel-timber composite (STC) structures has attracted extensive application over the past decade. Accordingly, this paper investigates the structural behaviour (load-deflection response, short-term stiffness, peak load capacity and failure modes) of hybrid steel-timber composite (STC) floors by conducting four-point bending tests on seven STC beams. In the proposed STC system, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) panels are connected to the steel girders by mechanical shear connectors or by glue, and effect of different types and spacing of shear connectors (bolts, self-tapping screws and glue), span length and LVL panel grain orientation (parallel and perpendicular to the grain) on the structural behaviour of STC beams are studied. In addition, non-linear 1D and 2D finite element (FE) models of the specimens that were tested are developed and verified against the experimental results and it is shown that the adopted 1D and 2D FE models can adequately capture the response of the STC beams. Furthermore, the composite efficiency of the STC beams are determined with respect to the experimental and FE results.