Interaction between cold-formed steel and lightweight foamed concrete with various cement content

Abstract

The bonding strength to hold lap slice between concrete and its reinforcing steel is the essential requirement of reinforced concrete and steel-concrete composite structures. In this paper, the compressive strength of lightweight foamed concrete with designated density at 1500 ±50 kg/m3 , by various cement-sand ratio and their respective interaction with cold-formed steel are investigated experimentally. The consistency and stability of lightweight foamed concrete are also examined towards the use of bulk sand. The results show that the compressive strength of lightweight foamed concrete increases with the increment of the cement content. For bonding strength between lightweight foamed concrete and cold-formed steel, specimens with holes in cold-formed steel sheets acting as shear connector exhibit higher pull-out strength. Moreover, the pull-out strength increases in-line with the increment of compressive strength of the lightweight foamed concrete. From the obtained results, lightweight foamed concrete with 5:1 cement-sand ratio exhibits highest compressive strength of 9.387 MPa and pull-out strength of 1.025 MPa with cold-formed steel, where holes exist as shear connector.