Time dependent behaviour of continuous composite beams with flexible connection

Abstract The influence of time dependent effects, namely the creep and shrinkage of the concrete flange, on the long-term behaviour of steel-concrete continuous beams with deformable connection is analysed. The stress and internal forces redistributions and evolution are evaluated, as well as the corresponding displacements. The non-linear behaviour of concrete is considered taking into account the cracking of concrete flange in negative moments. The non-linear behaviour of the connection between the steel girder and the concrete flange is also considered in order to simulate experimental results. The analysis is performed by finite elements based on the internal forces approximation with functions that strictly satisfy equilibrium. The viscoelastic behaviour of concrete is considered through an incremental process in time by a numerical method based on the creep approximation with a finite number of Dirichlet series terms. Finally, some numerical examples regarding the scope of this paper are presented.