Steel-plate composite (SC) structures consist of infilled concrete between steel faceplates with shear ties connecting the front and back faceplates. Shear ties can be made of bars, rebars, plates, or steel shapes. Currently, there is a tendency in the nuclear industry towards utilizing plate shear ties since they provide better handling performance of the skeletal steel modules during construction. The “smooth” interface for plate ties does not provide sufficient bonding to the concrete which reduces the panel shear performance. Additionally, the unidirectional orientation of the shear tie plates introduces orthotropic out-of-plane shear capacity for the panel where one orientation observes a nonductile shear failure in the concrete “cell’ bounded by two shear plates, while the other orientation observes flexural-shear failure in the shear ties. Previous studies investigated the out-of-plane shear performance of SC panels for design-based loads (using experimental data for quasi-static four point bending tests). However, there is scarcity in the research that investigates the out-of-plane shear performance for beyond design basis events such as Aircraft Impact. This paper presents results of an analytical study investigating the shear performance at connections in SC structures for high-speed impact loading. First, detailed FE models are benchmarked to test data to establish a valid modelling approach for SC panels. The proposed modelling approach is then expanded to high-speed impact shear loading case to assess the effectiveness of different shear tie configurations (rebar-type versus plate-type reinforcement) in meeting regulatory requirements for aircraft impact.
Investigating the Shear Performance of SC Walls Under Impact Loads
Ahmed Elhattab, Derrick Watkins, Randy James, Rim Nayal, Amber Berger, and Josh Parker
Transactions of the 26th International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology. Berlin/Potsdam, Germany. July 10-15, 2022.