Flexural Behavior of a New Steel-UHPFRC Composite Beam with In- Built Steel Dowel As Connector

A lightweight steel-UHPFRC composite beam structure, consisting of a half rolled section with in- built steel dowels as connectors and a T-shaped UHPFRC component, is proposed originally in this paper. The excellent properties of steel and UHPFRC materials can be exploited fully and properly, and the presence of in-built steel dowel is expected to allow effective force transmission between steel and UHPFRC components, benefiting from its higher shear resistance and ductility. Two composite beams with various heights of UHPC web are tested by 4PBT method, aiming at validating this concept and investigating the flexural behavior under sagging moment. And a high resolution Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system is applied during testing, in addition to conventional measuring techniques. Moreover, the sectional analysis method considering the tensile properties of UHPFRC is applied to predict the flexural.