Structural integrity of steel plate ultra high-performance concrete modules

Modular construction techniques allow for faster onsite construction, reduce cost and time, increase security, and facilitate flexible designs. In this study, steel plate concrete (SC) modular design benefits have been maximized by incorporating ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC). For a steel plate ultra high-performance concrete (S-UHPC) module to behave effectively, structural integrity of steel plate and UHPC is necessary. Different forms of construction for SC modules have been proposed in the past. Cross-ties method is considered to be one of the most efficient forms of construction of an SC module and has been proven to play an important role in ensuring the integrity of the module. This study investigates the structural integrity of S-UHPC modules. In addition, this paper focuses on finite element simulation (FEM) of the S-UHPC beams with emphasis on shear and bond slip behaviour. A new constitutive model is proposed to account for the bond slip behaviour of steel plates. The Cyclic Softened Membrane Model is utilized to simulate the shear behaviour of UHPC with embedded shear reinforcement. Both constitutive models are implemented into a finite element analysis programme based on the framework of OpenSees. The proposed FEM is able to capture the behaviour of the tested S-UHPC beams.