Experimental Study On Embedded Steel Plate Composite Coupling Beams

(Uncorrected OCR) Abstract of thesis entitled Experimental Study on Embedded Steel Plate Composite Coupling Beams Submitted by LamWai Yin for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in April 2003 With the aim of providing the construction industry with a feasible alternative coupling beam design that improves the structural performance of coupled shear wall structures under wind and seismic loading, an experimental study has been conducted to study the effectiveness of embedded steel plate composite coupling beams, a recent design innovation. The design makes use of the composite action between structural steel and reinforced concrete by embedding a steel plate vertically into a conventionally reinforced concrete section containing longitudinal flexural and transverse shear reinforcement. The composite action is enhanced by shear studs welded onto the steel plate along the longitudinal direction close to the flexural reinforcement. Five coupling beam specimens with identical dimensions and a span/depth ratio of 2.5 were tested under reversed cyclic loading conditions. Two of the coupling beams were conventionally reinforced while the other three were embedded steel plate composite coupling beams, each with a vertically embedded steel plate spanning across the full span and being anchored in the wall piers. In order to investigate the effects of shear studs on the overall performance of the composite coupling beams, one of the composite coupling beams was embedded with a plain plate. The test results demonstrated the superior behaviour of embedded steel plate composite coupling beams over conventionally reinforced concrete coupling beams in respect of their strength, ductility, and energy dissipation capacities under elastic loading and inelastic deformations. A maximum average shear stress close to 10MPa and a maximum rotation ductility factor above 9 were respectively recorded in two embedded steel plate composite coupling beam specimens.