Adhesives as a Permanent Shear Connection for Composite Beams

A composite beam is an effective building technique. The shear resistance of such elements is realised by using mechanical components, for example shear studs, which are leading to high local strains in the concrete slab. These local strains can cause high local stress in the steel. The application of adhesive technology avoids these high local stress peaks and enables new designs with the use of novel materials. The durability of adhesive connection is of high importance under climatic and thermal influence. Lack of knowledge of the long-term behavior of bonded joints, especially on long-lasting climatic effects is responsible for the lack of applications in building structures. The project aims to investigate the application of adhesive bonding as an alternative or supplement to mechanical joints in composite structures. The research objective is to obtain knowledge of the structural behavior of shear connection between steel and concrete in dependence of the inherent stress condition and material behavior in the adhesive joint. First, results of small specimen are presented.