Service design approach for composite steel–concrete floors Available to Purchase

Composite steel–concrete floors are widely used throughout the world for building and bridge applications. One of their main advantages relies on using the steel sheeting as permanent formwork and, once the concrete has hardened, as external reinforcement. This form of construction finds applicability in both steel and concrete structures with the use of composite slabs and post-tensioned composite slabs, respectively. For building applications, the design of composite steel–concrete floors is usually governed by serviceability limit state requirements associated with deflections. This paper presents a new design approach for the service design of composite and post-tensioned composite slabs. The particularity of the proposed procedure relies on the ability to account for the non-uniform shrinkage profile which develops through the slab thickness when the concrete is cast on steel sheeting. This behaviour is caused by the presence of the sheeting, which prevents drying from occurring from the underside of the slab. The proposed approach is validated against experimental measurements available in the literature for full-scale long-term tests of composite slabs and post-tensioned composite slabs.