An experimental study on composite slabs with steel deck sheets and fiber concrete

Recently, the use of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) as an alternative to conventional steel reinforcement has proved to be an effective solution in the composite slabs to prevent temperature and shrinkage cracks, increase the ductility of the composite slabs. However, Steel Fibers (SF) have a relatively little effect on compressive strength of concrete and high SF volume fraction might lead to a lack of workability.In this thesis, the influences of different parameters on the structural behavior of composite slabs are investigated. Thirteen slab specimens were constructed and tested to failure. The tested composite slabs consisted of three composite slab specimens with plain concrete, three specimens with studs, three specimens with studs and reinforced with SF only without conventional reinforcement, three specimens with studs, SF, and conventional reinforcement, and the last one which is called control specimen, solid concrete slab without steel sheeting. The investigated parameters are ultimate load, deflection, end slip and ductility of composite slabs.The test results showed that the use of shear connectors transform the behavior of specimens from brittle to ductile. Also, the use of SF instead of conventional reinforcement in composite slabs gave better results.