Open Access

ARTICLE

A Comprehensive Investigation on Shear Performance of Improved Perfobond Connector

Caiping Huang^*, Zihan Huang, Wenfeng You

School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, 430068, China

* Corresponding Author: Caiping Huang. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Sensing Data Based Structural Health Monitoring in Engineering)

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2024, 18(3), 299-320. https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2024.047850

Received 20 November 2023; Accepted 31 January 2024; Issue published 15 May 2024

Abstract

This paper presents an easily installed improved perfobond connector (PBL) designed to reduce the shear concentration of PBL. The improvement of PBL lies in changing the straight penetrating rebar to the Z-type penetrating rebar. To study the shear performance of improved PBL, two PBL test specimens which contain straight penetrating rebar and six improved PBL test specimens which contain Z-type penetrating rebars were designed and fabricated, and push-out tests of these eight test specimens were carried out to investigate and compare the shear behavior of PBL. Additionally, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models of the PBL specimens were established and validated against the test results. Through FEA, the effects of concrete grade, perforated plate’s aperture, Z-type penetrating rebar’s diameter, Z-type penetrating rebar’s bending angle, and bending length on shear behaviors were discussed. The results indicate that (1) Compared with PBL specimens with straight penetrating rebars, Z-type penetrating rebar can significantly improve the shear resistance and shear stiffness of the specimens. This enhanced performance can be mainly attributed to the increased adhesion of the transverse rebar. (2) By comparing the load-slip curve, the slip of PBL test specimens which contain straight penetrating rebar increases rapidly and the bearing capacity decreases rapidly after concrete craking, while the bearing capacity of Z-type penetrating rebar specimens decreases first and then increases gradually, showing better ductility. (3) The stress of the PBL shear connector with Z-type penetrating rebar is more uniform than the PBL shear connector with straight penetrating rebar, and the overall deformation is more uniform. (4) The higher the concrete grade, the higher the shear bearing capacity and the better ductility of the new PBL. Increasing the aperture of the perforated plate or the diameter of the rebar has a very limited effect on the improvement of the shear capacity of PBL. Through the systematic analysis of the mechanical properties of Z-type penetrating rebar PBL specimen, the experimental reference is provided for improving the structure and design of new type PBL.

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