Designing composite steel beams with precast concrete hollow-core slabs

This paper presents a design procedure for steel beams acting compositely with proprietary precast hollow-core slabs. It also contains selected underpinning theoretical analyses that illustrate the rationale behind the design formulae and recommendations. Numerical results for the transfer of horizontal compressive forces through the numerous interfaces and through the load–slip characteristics of the shear studs are presented, i.e. the interfaces between the precast slab and in situ concrete infill, and the in situ infill and steel beam. A method for designing composite beams, including the effective breadth of the precast slab, the degree of shear interaction and prediction of the moment capacity, is given. Load against span graphs for composite beams are provided for use in initial design. A worked example based on the procedures illustrates their application in practice.