Behavior of horizontal steel plate + studs connectors in a glulam-UHPC composite system: Experiment and analysis

Compared with conventional timber–concrete composite structures, glued laminated timber (glulam)–ultrahigh–performance concrete (UHPC) composite (GUCC) structures can remarkably reduce the deadweight and have small long-term deflection, good durability, and improved span capacity. Thus, this work designed a horizontal steel plate + stud (HS) connector with high stiffness and high shear capacity to ensure a reliable connection in the designed glulam–UHPC composite system and then investigated the structural behavior of the HS connector in the GUCC. In total, fifteen push–out specimens (in five groups with three replicates of each group) were fabricated and conducted a static load test. Effect of size of steel plate, the height-diameter ratio of stud, size of slab, and slab type (UHPC or NC) on the load-slip rules, shear stiffness, failure mode, and the shear capacity of HS connectors in GUCC were evaluated experimentally. The experimental results show that the average slip modulus and shear capacity of the HS connection ranges from 134.9 to 165.6 kN/mm and from 167.6 to 200.3 kN respectively. The primary failure mode of the structure comprises the shear failure of the glulam along the grain and the studs. Lastly, the empirical formula for calculating the load–slip relationship and the design formula for the shear capacity of the HS connection of GUCC systems are proposed. A comparison between the theoretical and experimental results reveals that the developed method has reasonable accuracy and can be used to guide the design of GUCC structures.