Push-out tests of innovative shear connectors between cold-formed steel section integrated with ferrocement jacket

Abstract

Traditional construction materials such as steel and concrete exhibit signs of deterioration over the years. This can be attributed either to the inherent nature of the materials or their weak resistance to adverse the environmental conditions and natural disasters, such as, fires, earth quakes, etc. The use of ferrocement as an external jacket to cold-formed column is presented in this study to provide an alternative solution to existing construction materials. Ferrocement is a special form of reinforced concrete, which exhibits a behavior that differs much from conventional reinforced concrete in strength performance and other potential applications. The use of ferrocement with cold-formed steel as composite column is a new approach to enhance the axial load capacity of the later. Hence, the composite action between ferrocement and cold-formed steel section have to be established by means of understanding the behavior of the proposed shear connectors. In this study, push-out test set-up is proposed for eight specimens with various shear connectors’ configuration. The utilization of high strength self-compacting ferrocement mortar in the design of cold-formed steel integrated with ferrocement jacket as composite column is proposed. It was observed that ferrocement jacket with 12 mm bolt shear connectors showed the best shear capacity when compared to other proposed shear connectors.