Open Access

ARTICLE

Nonlinear Elastic-Plastic Analysis of Composite Members of High-Strength Steel and Geopolymer Concrete

Mark Andrew Bradford¹, Yong-Lin Pi¹

1 The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2012, 89(5), 389-416. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2012.089.389

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the development of a finite composite beam element for the nonlinear elastic-plastic analysis of composite high strength steel and geopolymer concrete members. For this, geometric nonlinearity is derived using a special orthogonal rotation matrix, so that scalar product of vectors is preserved during rotation from the initial configuration to a deformed configuration and rigid body movements are excluded from the finite strains. The material nonlinearities of the geopolymer concrete are based on constitutive models in association with its axial stress-strain relationship that is consistent with the experimental results. To consider the slip due to possible partial shear connection of the bolts, the slip displacement between the high strength steel and geopolymer concrete components is treated as an independent degree-of-freedom. The effects of the nonlinearities and slip on the deformations, strains, stress resultants, and stiffness are thus combined together in the finite element formulation. The comparisons with experimental results demonstrate that the finite composite beam element is efficient, effective, and accurate. The finite composite beam element provides the much needed computer modeling of the structural mechanics and behaviour of high strength steel and geopolymer concrete members with bolted shear connectors, which are environmentally sustainable because they reduce the greenhouse emissions and can be deconstructed and recycled at the end of their service life.

---

Keywords

---