Shear behavior and analytical model of T-type perfobond rib connectors

The stress of shear connectors becomes more complicated with the increase of the span length of steel–concrete composite bridges. To ensure sufficient stiffness and ductility, a T-type perfobond rib (T-type PBL) shear connector is proposed. However, its mechanical behavior is not well understood due to the special shape and numerous influencing factors. Therefore, sixty-three finite element models were established based on the push-out test specimens with T-type PBL connectors to investigate the shear behavior and influencing parameters of ultimate bearing capacity. The effects of concrete end-bearing, perforated reinforcement, hole diameter, rib height, and flange width of T-type PBL on the shear-bearing capacity were performed and discussed based on the numerical results. The results showed that the bearing capacity provided by the concrete end-bearing and the perforated reinforcements was about 16% and 10% of the ultimate load. Additionally, the ductility of the specimen could be improved by the perforated reinforcements. It was showed that the shear-bearing capacity increased nonlinearly with the growth of the hole diameter. When the height of rib increased from 80 to 120 mm, the shear-bearing capacity was improved by 12% on average. The impact of flange width on the shear-bearing capacity was insignificant, which was less than 1.5%. Based on the results of parametric analysis. An analytical model for shear-bearing capacity of the T-type perfobond rib shear connector was established, and the validity was verified by relative test results. A basis for the evaluation of shear-bearing capacity, and application of the T-type PBL connectors was provided in this paper.