An Experimental Study on the Flexural Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Composite Beams

Composite beams of cold-formed profiled steel plate and reinforced concrete have advantages such as light weight, construction time saving, high strength and high ductility in comparison with reinforced concrete beams. A series of tests of composite and reinforced concrete beams was carried out to investigate stiffness ductility and buckling and ultimate strength. The increase of the flexural and shear strength due to confinement of concrete by profiled steel plates has been studied for the practical use. The test results are used to validate the analytical model to predict the moment-curvature and load-deflection relations.