Structural Behavior of Steel-Timber Composite Beams with Mass Plywood Panels and Self-tapping Screw Shear Connections
Abstract
Steel-timber composite floor systems consisting of steel beams and a mass timber floor slab represents an efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional steel-concrete composite systems. As use of steel-timber composite floors increases, so too does the potential to use novel engineered wood products in this application. Massive plywood panels (MPP) are one example, which offer higher strength and stiffness when compared to an equivalent volume of cross laminated timber (CLT) while also addressing material shortage and quality challenges. This paper presents experimental results on the structural behaviour of steel-timber composite beams fabricated using MPP. The influence of shear connection method, panel segmentation, and gaps between panels on the stiffness, strength, and failure modes of the composite beams are examined. The studied shear connection methods include self-tapping screws as well as a novel end-bearing steel angle. Experimental results show that the elastic stiffness of the composite section is 1.24 times that of an equivalent non-composite section and that up to 62% of the stiffness of the full composite section can be achieved. The end-bearing steel angle connection was found to be as effective as a screw-only connection. The presence of gaps between timber panels was found to have a significant impact on initial stiffness of the composite beams but had minimal impact on ultimate capacity. Existing theoretical models in the literature were found to be able to predict the stiffness and strength of the tested beams within 5% of the experimental result on average. Finally, the behaviour of the steel-MPP composite beams are compared with experimental data on steel-CLT composite beams in the literature.
Reference
Brendan P.H. Deeves; Joshua Woods. (2026). Structural Behavior of Steel-Timber Composite Beams with Mass Plywood Panels and Self-tapping Screw Shear Connections. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6614348
Explore the literature
Follow references, discover citing works and find related studies.