Analysis of composite beams -steel & concrete

A new type of beams combines many of the advantages of the traditional types of beams and eliminates some of theirdisadvantages called ” COMPOSITE REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS ”is introduced and examined in this study.This new type of beams contains a steel channel or plate forming the soffit of reinforced concrete beams and actingwith some steel reinforcing bars as a bottom reinforcement.This steel channel or plate acts also as a bottom shuttering of the beam. The steel channel or plate is connected to the reinforced concrete beam by means of shear connectors to provide full interaction.This type of beams was round t.o offer a considerable reduction in the beam depth and construction time. It alsoreduces significantly the deflection and stresses at the bottom of the cross-section of the beam and provides a better use of the mater ials.A comparison between different available types of beams was made using the finite element technique and then the behaviour of the composite reinforced concrete beams underloads was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Many