Experimental investigation on the shear behaviour of a demountable steel plate connection applied for reusing existing slabs

Abstract

Direct reuse of reinforced concrete (RC) components cut from existing buildings is considered to be an effective strategy to reduce large amount of natural resources consumption, CO2 emissions, and construction demolition waste. As essential components of RC structures, the volume of slabs accounts for a large proportion and whether such components can be reused has a significant impact on the environment and economy. Steel plate connections are commonly used in practice to connect discrete slabs to achieve the deconstruction and reuse of existing structural components. However, there still exist limited studies on demountable structural connections designed for existing RC slabs. This study proposes a novel demountable steel plate web connection which is composed of high‐strength bolts, steel tubes with both external & internal threads and a steel plate with specially‐designed slots. To study the influence of the dimension of the steel plate on ductility and stiffness of the proposed connection under in‐plane shear forces, an experimental investigation was performed through monotonic loading tests. The results shows that fabrication of holes effectively change the failure mode from brittle to ductile. Furthermore, varying the hole length from 60 mm to 90 mm allows the ultimate shear capacity to be changed within a broad range of 424 kN to 735 kN, accommodating diverse design demands.