Research on the Residual Carrying Capacity of Composite Decks with MCL Connectors under Fatigue Load

To investigate the mechanical behavior of the profiled steel-concrete composite deck with modified clothoid (MCL) connectors under fatigue load, a method for calculating the residual carrying capacity of the composite deck is proposed, and a finite element (FE) model is established to analyze the mechanism of the composite decks after fatigue failure. The maximum error between the theoretical method and the test result is 4%, and for the finite element model, the maximum error is 9%. The result indicates that the residual carrying capacities of the composite deck obtained from the theoretical method and the finite element model accord well with the test results. Parametric analysis is performed to investigate the influence of the shear span length Lsp, the modified clothoid shape connector spacing Lmc, and the upper flange depth hc of the concrete slab. It reveals that with the increase of the shear span length and the MCL connector spacing, the residual carrying capacity decreases exponentially. Additionally, the relation between hc and the residual capacity of the composite deck is linear. The study is helpful for the fatigue design of the profiled steel-concrete composite decks.

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