U.S. Composite Design Codes: A Personal View of the Influence of Composite Construction Conferences

Over 25 years have gone by since the first Composite Construction in Steel and Concrete Conference was organized in Henniker, New Hampshire (USA), and this seventh conference presents a great opportunity to assess the impact that this series of conferences has had on American composite construction codes. The intent of this paper is to provide a brief history of both modern composite member design provisions in the USA and how this conference series influenced their development. The latter include important direct impacts on the design provisions for shear studs, composite columns, and serviceability provisions, among others. Looking forward, the paper also gives some preliminary results on provisions for the determination of the equivalent stiffness of simply supported beams to be proposed for the 2016 edition of the AISC specification. It is written as a personal reflection and is not intended to represent the points of view of any of the organizations mentioned.