Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out on bolted l-beam to rectangular hollow section column connections with a composite floor, loaded by in-plane bending moments. From the experiments and the numerical modelling, a good insight into the static behaviour of these connections is obtained, such as: failure criteria of the connections, the effect of the concrete filling in the column and the influence of the multiplanar loading etc. Based on the experimental and numerical results and the comparison with the analytical models, the proposed recommendations for the design of bolted I-beam to RHS column connections with a composite floor are given.
Composite construction has been used for flooring system in buildings because of its overall economy of use of materials and ease of construction. However, there is still no standard design approach for the composite connections. Eurocode 4 (1992), for the design of composite construction, permits the general principle of using composite connections in frame design, but gives no application rules. The design is based on pin-ended connections and the reinforcements in the slab have been only used to control the crack width of the concrete. No structural action of the reinforcements in the slab has been taken into account in the strength design because of a lack of sufficient acknowledgements for these types of connections. It is economically attractive to use the hogging bending moments of the connections. By taking the composite structural action through the reinforcements in the slab into account, a better stiffness and strength of a connection can be achieved even if relatively small steel members are used. With this aim, recently, extensive experimental and numerical research has been carried out on different types of composite connections (Ahmed, 1995).
