7. Conclusions
Current design codes for steel-concrete composite beams neglect strain hardening of the steel member. Although this is a reasonable assumption for carbon steel, stainless steel is a very ductile material which demonstrates significant levels of strain hardening. The current research presents an adaptation of the continuous strength method (CSM) for composite beams made from stainless steel, to predict the plastic bending moment capacity for members with full and partial shear connection. Two different models are presented, namely a full, detailed model as well as a more simplified approach. Since no tests have been conducted on stainless steel-concrete composite beams, a validated finite-element model is employed to investigate the accuracy of the proposed analytical approach. The analytical analysis in the full model, in particular, requires complex mathematical solution and therefore a simplified analytical solution is also proposed, utilising the assumptions of Eurocode 4. It is concluded that both the full and simplified analytical solutions presented in this study provide an accurate prediction of the bending capacity. Moreover, the simplified analytical approach also provides a straight-forward design tool for practical engineers, which can be applied for composite beams with full or partial shear connection.
