Thin–Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

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Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

Full length article

A numerical study on a novel demountable cold-formed steel composite

beam with profiled steel sheeting
Ahmad Karimipanah , Mehran Zeynalian *, Abdolreza Ataei
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Cold-formed steel composite beams are known for their unique advantages, like being lightweight and ease of
Composite beam installation. The use of profiled steel sheeting in cold-formed composite beams reduces construction time and
Cold-formed steel costs by acting as a permanent formwork in the composite beams. The current study presents a 3D finite element
Profiled steel sheeting
model of cold-formed steel composite beam specimens comprising a cold-formed double-lipped channel section,
Finite element model
profiled steel sheeting, concrete slab, and bolted shear connector. Employing bolted shear connectors, structural
components can be deconstructed and replaced after their service life expires or if they are damaged. The
characteristics of the materials obtained from an experimental program were assigned to the finite element
model. Geometric characteristics, material nonlinearities, and loading procedures were attentively simulated,
and a dynamic explicit procedure was employed for the numerical analyses. A comparison of the results obtained
from the finite element models and the available experimental results validated the precision of the models.
Then, numerical studies were conducted to investigate the effects of various parameters, including compressive
strength of concrete, thickness of concrete slab, height and grade of cold-formed steel section, thickness of
profiled steel sheeting, number and diameter of shear connectors, on the behavior of the composite beam. The
results showed that the height and grade of the cold-formed steel section and compressive strength and thickness
of the concrete slab have a significant effect on increasing the capacity of the composite beam.

1. Introduction comprising cold-formed double-lipped channel sections, profiled steel

sheeting, concrete slab, and bolted shear connectors.
In recent decades, the application of steel–concrete composite sec­ Shear connectors play the role of shear transferor between the con­
tions has been increasing greatly in the building industry, especially in crete slabs and the CFS sections [4]. While there are different types of
concrete flooring systems, due to their higher initial stiffness and shear connectors, such as bolts, studs, and channels, bolts are preferred
strengths, higher span–to-depth ratio of beams, and less deflection in in CFS composite beams, because their use facilitates and ensures the
mid-span. Since the 1990s, the building industry has made significant deconstruction of structural components after service life expires or
developments in the utilization of cold-formed steel (CFS) frames when structural components need to be replaced. Moreover, they pro­
because of their unique advantages, such as their being light weight and vide an ideal solution for the easy demolition and waste disposal of a
relative ease of construction [1–3]. It is expected that CFS composite structure after its use is over, especially structures with a short lifespan.
beams will provide a desirable structural performance, as the Other types of shear connectors are not as efficiently applicable in
cold-formed steel section is resistant to potential buckling; it is usually cold-formed steel composite beams, because they usually require
the case that all of the steel section is in tension and the concrete slab welding for their installation, which is not recommended for thin walled
remains in compression, but it might also happen that the neutral axis steel sheets.
lies in the beam. In addition, the profiled steel sheeting acts as a per­ Numerous studies have been conducted on steel-concrete composite
manent formwork; hence, it reduces construction time and costs. The floors with bolted shear connectors and precast concrete slabs in recent
current study investigated the structural performance of demountable years [5–7]. Although several studies have been performed different
cold-formed steel composite beams with profiled steel sheeting by per­ types of shear connectors in composite beams with ordinary hot rolled
forming a numerical study on full-scale composite beam specimens steel sections [4,8-10], few have evaluated composite beams with CFS

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: m.zeynalian@eng.ui.ac.ir (M. Zeynalian).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2024.111812
Received 7 August 2023; Received in revised form 13 March 2024; Accepted 16 March 2024
Available online 18 March 2024
0263-8231/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Table 1
Details of the tested specimens.
Specimen Name Properties of CFS section Properties of shear connectors
D B d thickness Bolt diameter Spacing(center to center)
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)

C180-1.25-M-10 CB1 180 60 20 1.25 10 300

C180-2.00-M-12 CB2 180 60 20 2.00 12 300
C250-1.25-M-10 CB3 250 60 20 1.25 10 300
C250-2.00-M-12 CB4 250 60 20 2.00 12 300

Fig. 1. Geometry and components of composite beams.

Fig. 2. The profiled sheet’s dimensions.

Fig. 3. Load and instrumentation set-up.

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

nuts [12,13]. Using bolted connectors instead of welded studs, Pavlović

et al. [14] demonstrated through experimental and numerical in­
vestigations that the strength of the bolts could surpass 95 % of that of
usual headed studs at serviceability loads, but their stiffness is reduced
by 50 % at serviceability loads.
Qureshi et al. [15] conducted experimental and numerical research
to study the behavior of headed shear connectors in composite beams
with two studs which were welded into the profiled sheeting per rib.
Queiroz et al. [16] developed a finite element model to appraise partial
and full shear connections in composite beams. Vasdravellis et al. [17,
18] inspected the effects of axial compression and tension loads on the
flexural behavior of the concrete-steel beam. Tahmasebinia et al. [19]
investigated the behavior of a composite beam with steel trapezoidal
decking using 3D finite element models. Ferrer et al. [20] used a vali­
dated FEM model in ANSYS software to study steel-concrete slip
mechanisms and their dependency upon geometrical and physical pa­
rameters. Gholamhoseini [21] proposed a finite element model to verify
full-scale simply-supported slab specimens tested with shear spans of
either span/4 or span/6 using four types of profiled steel sheeting widely
used in Australia. They used interface elements to model the bond
properties between profiled steel sheeting and a concrete slab. Kyvelou
et al. [22] investigated the behavior of a composite slab comprising
cold-formed steel beams and wood-based floorboards. They proposed a
method for designing such systems and used the results of 12 experi­
mental tests and almost 80 numerical simulations to predict moment
capacity and flexural stiffness of the invented design method. Majdi
et al. [23] studied a new type of composite floor that comprises
cold-formed steel profiles, a corrugated steel deck, and a continuous hat
channel acting as a joist, formwork for concrete, and a shear connector,
respectively. They performed a nonlinear analysis on the composite
floor to observe the system behavior and potential failure modes. Zhao
and Li [24] investigated the failure process and behavior of a bonded
steel–concrete composite beam utilizing the finite element method. Dias
et al. [25] presented a novel shear connector to be used with CFS
composite beams; the connector was comprised of a rivet and a bolt and
was installed with one access, allowing it to be employed with tubular
CSF sections. The researchers performed four push-out tests as well as
four full-scale beam tests and assessed the connector and beam behav­
iors through numerical analyses using ABAQUS.
As mentioned earlier, among the investigations performed on CFS
composite beams, no study was found that specifically concentrated on
CFS composite beams with profiled steel sheeting. Therefore, the current
research performed a parametric study after the finite element (FE)
model was verified by the available experimental results. Of particular
interest are the compressive strength of concrete, thickness of the con­
Fig. 4. a) Elastic and inelastic behavior of concrete in compression, b) Elastic
and inelastic behavior of concrete in tension by damage parameter in ABAQUS. crete slab, height and grade of the CFS section beam, thickness of pro­
filed steel sheeting, and number and diameter of shear connectors.

Table 2 2. Experimental study

Concrete properties.
Density (kg/m3) Elastic modulus (GPa) Poisson’s ratio To avoid lengthening of the current paper, only a general overview of
the tests are presented herein; more details about the experimental study
2400 26.2 0.2
of the specimens such as the test set up, loading, configuration of
Dilation angle (Ψ) Eccentricity (e) Viscosity (µ) fbo/fco K measuring devices, and results and discussion after the tests are pre­
37 0.1 0.001 1.16 0.667 sented in another submitted paper.
f’c (Compressive strength (MPa)) Tensile strength(MPa) Four full-scale composite beam specimens with simple (pinned-rol­
ler) supports comprising cold-formed double-lipped channel sections,
31 3.1
profiled steel sheeting, concrete slabs, and bolted shear connectors were
examined. Their details are summarized in Table 1. In these specimens,
sections. composite action was provided using bolted shear connectors and pro­
Dallam studied bolted shear connectors in composite beams in the filed steel sheeting. The geometry, dimensions, and details of all speci­
late 1960s and showed that bolted connectors with high strength have a mens are illustrated in Fig. 1. By placing back-to-back lipped C-channels
greater load capacity than stud shear connectors by studying 12 push- of CFS sections, an I-section beam was obtained. Top flanges were
out tests [11]. Over the past two decades, other studies have devel­ attached to the profiled steel sheet and the concrete slab employing 8.8
oped new shear connectors for CFS composite beams, such as bolts and grade of 10 and 12 mm diameter bolts which were considered shear
connectors. The bolts were passed through the profiled steel sheet and

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Fig. 5. The meshing of the concrete part.

span of the beams. Two LVDTs were used to measure beam deflection at
the center. Moreover, the slip was recorded at both ends of the specimen
between the CFS beam and the concrete slab. To evaluate the correlation
between stress and strain, strain gauges were installed in the mid-span
portion of the specimen, including the bottom and top flanges of the
CFS beam as well as the bottom of the profiled steel sheeting, and the top
fiber of the concrete slab.
All specimens were loaded up to about 10 % of predicted ultimate
load, then unloaded, and zero was set for all indicators. This method was
performed to check the test set-up, the performance of the instrumen­
tation, and the equilibrium of the specimen. After verifying the testing
method, the specimens were reloaded in increments of about 1 kN.
When the specimen deformed substantially, the test was discontinued.
Fig. 3 shows the load and instrumentation set-up.

Fig. 6. Concrete slab mesh sensitivity diagram.

3. Numerical analysis

To simulate and investigate the composite beam specimens, a finite

element model was developed employing software ABAQUS [26]. To
achieve the most accurate results from the models, all components
comprising the concrete slab, bolted shear connectors, profiled steel
sheeting, and I-shaped cold-formed steel beam were precisely modeled.
In addition, composite beam specimens were fully modeled in order to
consider all details, including different shear connection distances, and
material non-linearity was taken into account. In the following sections,
detailed information is given on the applied materials, meshes and
element types, loading protocol, and the interaction and boundary
conditions.

3.1. Materials idealization and modeling

One of the most effective and significant steps in a finite element

model is defining materials and damage models. Under experimental
inspections, the ultimate failure in the specimens occurred because of
damage to the concrete slabs and CFS sections. Hence, an exact defini­
tion of the damage and behavior of each material is needed. This is
discussed below.
Fig. 7. Elastic and inelastic behavior of steel.
3.1.1. Concrete
the top flange of the CFS beam and were fastened by two nuts. Slab Concrete is one of the main materials in this study, and it plays an
thicknesses were 70 mm and 150 mm at shallow and normal height, effective role on the flexural behavior of the specimens. In this research,
respectively, as depicted in Fig. 1, Section A. A 6-mm diameter rebar the cylindrical compressive strength of concrete at the age of 28 days
spaced almost 300 mm was employed in one layer into the concrete slab. (f’c) was examined based on ASTM standards. Moreover, other proper­
It is noteworthy that reinforcements were placed in the shallow part of ties of concrete, such as modulus of elasticity and ultimate strain, were
the slab employing a 30-mm spacer. The applied 0.8-mm thick profiled achieved by codes. The behavior of concrete in compression and tension
sheet used is shown in Fig. 2. All sheets had similar geometries and zones was described employing a concrete damaged plasticity (CDP)
thicknesses. model in ABAQUS. Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio were applied to
The specimens were tested under load-control loading regimens simulate the elastic behavior of the concrete. The CDP option in the
using a 1000 kN hydraulic jack. There were two loads applied on a 1/3 software simulates the inelastic behavior and damage of concrete.

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Fig. 8. Stress-strain diagram of profiled steel sheeting.

Fig. 9. Meshed a) sheet and b) beam.

Fig. 4a indicates the parabolic model used to define the compressive terial, and εc is the total compressive strain.
strain-stress curve of concrete. The input values needed to develop this In this study, the density of concrete is considered to be 2400 kg/m3,
model consist of compressive stresses (σc) and compressive damage and the model suggested by Carreira and Chu [27] for simulating the
(DAMAGEC) parameter (dc), which represent the degradation rate of compressive behavior is taken into account. In this model, two different
stiffness in the concrete. Inelastic strains can be calculated from the parts can be recognized, i.e., a linear elastic part and a non-linear
following equations: parabolic portion in which, by increasing to 35 % of its compressive
strength, linear behavior is dominated. After that, the second part of the
εinc = εc − εeloc (1)
stress-strain curve is begun as:
σc
εeloc = (2) fc′γ(ε/εc )
Ec σc = (3)
γ − 1 + (ε/εc )γ
where εeloc is the elastic strain in accordance with the undamaged ma­

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

√̅̅̅̅
Ec = 4700 fc′ (4)

in which fc′ and Ec are in MPa.

The input values to develop this model in software consist of the
tensile stresses (σt) and tensile damage (DAMAGET) parameter (dt) for
corresponding cracking strain (εck t ) values as well as Young’s modulus
(Ec). The cracking strain can be calculated using the following
equations:

εck el
t = εt − εot (5)

σt
εelot = (6)
Ec

where εelot is the elastic strain in accordance with the undamaged mate­
rial, and εt is the total tensile strain.
It is noteworthy that dt and dc change from zero to one. Zero depicts
undamaged material, whereas one shows material without strength.
They show the degradation of the elastic stiffness on the strain-softening
branch of the stress-strain curve. This study applied the damage pa­
rameters (dc and dt) from Eq. (7) to the software. Maximum σ is shown
in Fig. 4(a, b) where σ is the stress in the softening part [29]:
σc,t
dc,t = 1 − (7)
Maxσc,t

To define the plastic behavior of concrete in ABAQUS, plasticity

values in addition to the compressive and tensile curves should be given
by the user to the software. Five parameters are used to define plasticity,
including dilation angle (Ψ) which is the angle of internal friction of the
material, viscosity (µ) used for the visco-plastic regularization of the
concrete constitutive equations, and other parameters for defining in the
Yield function of Lubliner [30] in accordance with Lee and Fenves’
modifications [31] so as to account for different evolutions of strength
under tension and compression, including flow potential eccentricity
(e), the ratio of biaxial to uniaxial strength (ffboco ), and
Fig. 10. Meshed shear bolt. tensile-to-compressive meridian stress ratio (K). Table 2 presents the
CDP input values proposed by the ABAQUS manual [26] that have been
where εc = 0⋅002 and γ = (fc′/32.4)3 + 1.55 and where fc′ is the mean used in other literature [31,32] and calibrated by experimental results.
cylinder compressive strength in MPa. It is also necessary to mention that the concrete was modeled using
For concrete in tension, as shown in Fig. 4b, the behavior of the C3D8R solid elements. This is an 8-node solid brick element with 3
tensile stress was increasing linearly until the concrete cracked, degrees of freedom in translation at each node. The C3D8R element is
assuming almost 10 % of its compressive strength [4]. After cracking the capable of cracking in three orthogonal directions, plastic deformation,
concrete, at a strain of about 10 times its cracking strain, the stress and crushing.
dropped to zero. Poisson’s ratio for concrete was assumed to be 0.2, and In this research, the meshing size of different parts in the FE model
the modulus of elasticity of the concrete was determined utilizing Eq. (4) was considered small enough to avoid the effect of mesh size on the
as recommended in ACI code [28]: investigation results and optimize the analysis time. It was found that
using a general size of 20 mm on the concrete part provided a balance

Fig. 11. The specimen after the assembling procedure.

Fig. 12. Loading and boundary condition.

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Fig. 13. Comparison of experimental and numerical results.

Fig. 14. a–c) FEM failure modes, d-e) Test results of CB2 specimen (units in N, m).

between accuracy and analysis time (Fig. 5). As an example, Fig. 6 il­ 3.1.2. Cold-formed steel
lustrates how the mesh size affected the stress induced in the concrete In this study, the material characteristics of all used steel components
slab. such as yield strength, modulus of elasticity, ultimate strain and strength
were achieved and established upon the standard uniaxial tensile tests
on cold-formed material coupons. The density and Poisson’s ratio of the

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Fig. 15. a) FEM model, b) Test results of CB3 specimen.

Fig. 16. a) FEM model, b) Test results of CB4 specimen (units in N, m).

steel in all parts of the composite beam were considered to be 7800 kg/ is a 4-node doubly curved shell using reduced integration and an
m3and 0.3, respectively. The elastic behavior of the steel is defined by hourglass control element. This shell element can consider transverse
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. Additionally, inelastic strain and shear deformations and has been successfully employed by other re­
the corresponding yield stress were taken into account to define the searchers to model the CFS beam sections [33–36]. Fig. 9 represents the
plastic behavior of the steel. The bilinear curve that is widely used in meshing of the plate and beam with a general size of 20 mm, which was
numerical models [32] and employed to define the elastic and plastic selected as the optimum size obtained by a sensitivity analysis.
behavior of the steel is shown in Fig. 7.
In this modeling, the elastic modulus was defined as 205 GPa. In 3.1.3. High strength steel bolt
addition, 295 MPa and 350 MPa were considered for the corresponding As mentioned earlier, an 8.8-grade high strength steel bolt was
0 and 0.380 plastic strains to define yield and ultimate stresses, considered in this research. The elastic and plastic behavior of the bolts
respectively. Fig. 8 shows the stress-strain diagram for the profiled steel was defined using a bilinear curve just like the cold-form steel. The
sheeting captured from the coupon test compared with this method. The elastic modulus was defined as 200 GPa. To define the yield and ultimate
S4R shear element was employed to model the sheet and CFS beam. This stress of the bolt, 655 MPa and 962 MPa were used for the corresponding

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Table 3 3.3. Boundary conditions

Parameters selected for parametric studies.
Variable Range of variable As shown in Fig. 12, all beams had simply-supported (pinned-roller)
conditions. For this, at the support location, a small region of the bottom
Compressive strength of concrete in the slab (MPa) f c=20, 25, 30, 35, 40
’

Thickness of concrete (mm) tc=50, 70, 90, 110, 130 flange of the steel beam was changed to a rigid body part. For this
Thickness of profiled steel sheeting (mm) tp=0, 0.70, 0.90, 1.10, 1.30, purpose, by defining a reference point, the required restraints were
1.50 applied. To simulate the simply supported boundary conditions, pinned
Steel grade of CFS beam (MPa) fy=275, 355, 380, 420, 460 support with only restrained translational displacements in the X and Z
Height of CFS beam (mm) D = 100, 140, 180, 220, 260
Embedded bolt height (mm) b = 30, 50, 70 mm
directions and roller support restraining only in the Z direction were
Number of shear connections* n= (0,2,4, 6) ø12 defined. They were free to rotate.
The same area of shear connections* (Same degree of 2ø20,4ø16,6ø12
shear connection)
3.4. Interaction and contact modelling
Note: Values in bold selected for control composite beam.
*
They are used on each side of the critical area of beams. In this research, the All components in the composite beams were precisely assembled
number of shear connections from the loading point to the simple support were employing the surface to surface contact interaction method in ABA­
exposed to shear and were in the critical area. QUS. This occurs between the profiled steel sheeting and concrete slab,
bolt nut and profiled steel sheeting, the head and shank of bolt and the
0 and 0.165 plastic strains, respectively, in ABAQUS. This was captured concrete slab, the profiled steel sheeting and cold-formed steel (CFS)
from the stress-strain diagram of the 8.8 bolt in [4]. Bolts were modeled beam, and the bolt nut and CFS beam. This process was completed by
using C3D8R solid elements by the general size of 10 mm for meshing considering the PENALTY option for the tangential behavior between
(Fig. 10), which was appointed based on a sensitivity analysis. After two surfaces. The friction coefficients between the steel components and
meshing all components, they were assembled in the FEM model, and concrete slab were assumed to be 0.4 and between the other in­
the meshed composite beam was captured, as demonstrated in Fig. 11. teractions, 0.25 [39–41]. For normal behavior of contact property,
HARD contact in ABAQUS was used.
3.2. Loading and analysis method
4. FEM validation
By considering the experimental load-displacement of the specimens,
a displacement-control loading regime was applied to the model. The To validate the accuracy of the proposed finite element model, the
dynamic explicit analysis method provided in ABAQUS was used to results of FEM were compared to the available experimental data.
analyze the models [37]. It should be mentioned that to achieve precise Fig. 13 shows load mid-span diagrams for all composite beam specimens
results in a quasi-static problem, the ratio of kinetic energy to internal versus diagrams obtained from numerical analysis, which indicate a
energy should be less than 10 % [38]. good agreement between the results. The ultimate loads achieved from
the finite element analysis were 89, 130, 83.5, and 130.6 kN for CB1 to

Fig. 17. Composite beam parameters.

Fig. 18. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different compressive strengths of concrete.

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Fig. 19. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different concrete thicknesses.

failure modes here: web shear buckling of CFS beams with lower
thicknesses (CB1 and CB3) and debonding and concrete slab cracking for
CFS beams with greater thicknesses (CB2 and CB4). Fig. 14a shows the
magnitude of displacement (U) of components that debonding is known
here. The displacement of profiled steel sheeting and concrete relative to
each other is known as debonding. The tensile damage variable (dt) in
concrete is shown in Fig. 14b. As shown in Fig. 14c, AC YIELD is for the
plastic strain, indicating whether the yield surface is occurred or not and
taking 1 or 0, respectively.
As clearly seen in Fig. 16, test observations revealed that concrete
damage began near the bolts and extended to the edges. Hence, this is
recognized as the critical area of composite beams. As a result, by using
the FE models developed in this paper, parametric studies on the
behavior of composite beams can be performed. Further discussion on
the parametric studies is provided in Section 5.

5. Parametric studies

Fig. 20. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different thicknesses of Parametric studies were conducted to estimate the effects of some
profiled steel sheeting. relevant variables on the behavior of a composite beam using the finite
element model. First, the CB2 specimen was selected as the control
CB4, respectively, which are, respectively, almost 2 %, 5 %, 7 %, and 8 % composite beam. The properties of the CFS beam and shear connectors
different from the corresponding experimental results. In addition, the in the control composite beam are exactly similar to those of CB2
mid-span deflection at the ultimate load was 40, 27.9, 35.1, and 13.1 (Table 1). Table 3 presents the parameters selected for study and the
mm for CB1-CB4, respectively, which are close to the test results of 41, range of variables. As shown in Fig. 17, b and tc are the embedded bolt’s
31, 34.9, and 13.85 mm, respectively. Figs. 14 to 16 show the failure height and the thickness of the slab in shallow depth, which were
modes which were in close agreement with experimental observations. considered to be 50 and 90 mm in the control beam, respectively. The
Fig. 15 illustrates the web shear buckling of 1.25-mm thick CFS speci­ thickness of the profiled steel sheeting (tp) in the control beam was 1.1
mens (CB1 and CB3) and transverse cracks in the concrete slab. Figs. 14 mm with the same steel properties. The strength of the concrete was f ’c
and 16 demonstrate the cracking and debonding failure modes of the =25 MPa, and the yield stress of the steel of the CFS beam was 380 MPa.
concrete slab in FE models of 2-mm thick CFS specimens which are Of particular interest were the concrete compressive strength (f ’c), yield
similar to the failure modes observed in the experiments. There are two stress and height of CFS beam, concrete thickness in shallow depth (tc),

Fig. 21. The stress of profiled steel sheeting in composite beam (units in N, m).

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

Fig. 22. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different steel grades of CFS beam.

Fig. 23. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different heights of CFS beam.

embedded bolt’s height (b), and number and diameter of the bolts on the concrete strength is not influential.
composite beams. Eight groups of beams, each with one variable
parameter were investigated. The rest of the parameters, such as the 5.2. Effect of thickness of slab concrete
span and the loading regime, remained constant as presented in Section
3. The thickness of the concrete slab has a significant influence on the
behavior of the composite beams. Five different thicknesses of concrete,
5.1. Effect of compressive strength of concrete i.e., tc =50, 70, 90, 110, and 130 mm, were considered in this para­
metric study. The load-deflection diagram of the mid-span of the com­
The effect of the compressive strength of slab concrete on the load- posite beams with different thicknesses of slab concrete is illustrated in
deflection behavior of the composite beams is shown in Fig. 18. Five Fig. 19. As can be seen, when the slab thickness increases from 50 to 130
composite beams with different compressive strengths of concrete, viz. f mm, the ultimate load increases up to 80 %.
’
c = 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 MPa were considered. As shown in Fig. 18, by
increasing the compressive strengths of concrete, the ultimate strengths 5.3. Effect of thickness of profiled steel sheeting
of composite the beams gradually increase; when it is increased from 20
to 30 MPa, the ultimate strength of the composite beam increases 17 %, To investigate the effect of thickness of profiled steel sheeting, FE
and from 30 to 40 MPa, the increased strength is not notable. It is worth models of six composite beams with profiled steel with thicknesses of 0,
mentioning that other components of the composite slab, including the 0.7, 0.9, 1.10, 1.30, and 1.50 mm were considered. The zero amount
steel section, govern the final strength. Therefore, the increase in refers to the composite beam with no profiled steel sheeting. As shown in

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Fig. 24. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different embedded bolt height.

less stiffness than the concrete slab, even though steel is a harder ma­
terial than concrete. Thus, the bottom of the concrete slab is considered
as the master surface, while the top of the profiled steel sheeting is
considered as the slave surface [15].
Because concrete experiences small strain, the stress of profiled steel
sheeting is small and does not have a significant effect on the bending
strength of the beam. Fig. 21 shows the stress of profiled steel sheeting.

5.4. Effect of steel grade of CFS beam

Five different steel grades, S275 (fu=370 MPa), S355 (fu=470), S420
(fu=520), and S460 (fu=550), according to the European code [42],
were selected in this research to investigate the effect of the steel grade
of the CFS beam on the behavior of composite beams. As shown in
Fig. 22, the load-deflection response was significantly affected by
changing the steel grade, with a significant increase in ultimate strength;
Fig. 25. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different bolt numbers in
the critical area. however, no distinct increase in the initial stiffness was observed. For
example, when the grade of steel was upgraded from S275 to S460, the
ultimate strength was increased by 38 % (from 157 to 218) with the
Fig. 20, the presence of profiled steel sheeting improved the bending
same mid-span displacement. In fact, in the initial stages of loading, as
behavior about 15 %, but the change in thickness of the profiled steel
none of the steel fibers had yielded, no difference was observed. After
sheeting had no significant influence on the behavior of the composite
fibers reached yield stress, however, this difference was observed.
beam.
The ABAQUS [26] states that the master and slave surfaces should be
selected not only based on soft or hard material, but on the stiffness of
the material as well. Because of its thinness, profiled steel sheeting has

Fig. 26. Load vs. mid-span displacement response, different sizes of bolt with the same area in the critical area of beam.

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A. Karimipanah et al. Thin-Walled Structures 199 (2024) 111812

5.5. Effect of height of CFS beam • The thickness of the concrete slab has a significant influence on the
behavior of composite beams.
Five different heights of CFS beam, i.e. H = 100, 140, 180, 220, and • The presence of profiled steel sheeting improves the bending
260 mm, were considered to study the effect of CFS beam height on the behavior of composite beams by about 15 %.
behavior of the composite beam. The diagrams obtained from numerical • Increasing the thickness of profiled steel sheeting has no significant
studies are illustrated in Fig. 23. As expected, when the height of the CFS influence on the behavior of the composite beam.
beam is increased, the initial stiffness and load capacity of specimens • By changing the grade of steel in the CFS beam, significant en­
increased significantly, while the displacement capacity and ductility of hancements in the ultimate strength occur, but there are no distinct
specimens decreased. It is noteworthy that these results were compatible increases in the initial stiffness.
with the experimental observation shown in Fig. 13. By increasing the • Increasing the height of the CFS beam significantly increases the
moment resistance of the bare CFS beam, the specimens could achieve initial stiffness and load capacity of specimens.
higher load or bending resistance. • Changing the embedded bolt’s height in the concrete slab has no
significant effect on the behavior of the composite beams.
• Increasing the degree of shear connections in the critical area of the
5.6. Effect of embedded bolt height
beam significantly increases the initial stiffness and load capacity of
the composite beam.
Three composite beams with different embedded bolt heights, i.e. b
• Using the same area of shear connection (same degree of shear
= 30, 50, and 70 mm, were analyzed to investigate the effect of
connection) in the critical length of the composite beam (similar area
embedded bolt height. The load versus mid-span vertical deflection is
section and different diameter of bolts) had no considerable effect on
shown in Fig. 24. As the graph depicts, embedded bolt height has no
the behavior of composite beam; however, a greater number of bolts
significant effect on the load deflection of the composite beam, because
with a smaller diameter is more suitable.
profiled steel sheeting creates a suitable surface against contact stress.
As a result, the tangential stress of the bolts is insignificant, and the
change of the embedded height does not have a significant effect. CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ahmad Karimipanah: Writing – original draft, Software, Resources,

5.7. Effect of number and diameter of shear connection Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Mehran Zeynalian:
Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Meth­
Another parameter which was numerically studied in this research is odology, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Abdolreza Ataei:
the number of shear connections. The results are presented in Fig. 25. Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Conceptualization.
Four composite beams with different numbers of shear connections, viz.
0 (no shear connection), 2, 4, and 6 bolts with 12-mm diameters, in
critical areas were investigated. In this research, the number of shear Declaration of competing interest
connections from the loading point to the simple support, i.e. six on each
side of the beam, were exposed to shear and were in the critical area. As There is no conflict of interest applicable to this research study.
shown in Fig. 25, by decreasing the degree of shear connection, the ul­
timate load was decreased by 60 %, which means the degree of shear Data availability
connection has an important effect on the behavior of composite beams.
Fig. 26 shows applied load versus mid-span displacement for three Data will be made available on request.
composite beams with different bolt diameter sizes but similar total area
sections of the shear connections used for the transition of shear in the
critical area of the beam. As shown in Fig. 26, diameter size does not Supplementary materials
have a significant influence on the structural performance of the com­
posite beam. It is also predictable that the use of connectors with the Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
same degree of shear connection but different diameters will have little the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.tws.2024.111812.
effect on the structural role and using a greater number of bolts with a
smaller diameter will be more suitable. References

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