An experimental and numerical study of twin dowel type shear connector

The hunger for a better, more effective, more economic, easier for construction, and overall more sustainable bridge design is enormous nowadays. One of the solutions for the problems described is a steel-concrete composite structure with embedded continuous shear connectors. Such structure uses advantages of both materials (concrete in compression and steel in tension) while lowering the overall height of the structure and time of the construction. This paper presents a new design of the connector of twin dowel type, with clothoid dowel, where two dowel connectors are welded longitudinally by flanges to create one twin connector. Its geometrical attributes are closely described and the design origin is explained. The study of the proposed shear connector consists of experimental and numerical part. In experimental study, the experiments performed—four push-out tests—and their setup, instrumentation and material characteristics are described and their results in a form of load-slip curves are presented and analyzed. In numerical study the finite element model developed in ABAQUS software is presented with a detailed description of the modeling process. In results and discussions the results of the numerical study are compared with results from the experimental study and the resistance of the proposed shear connector is briefly compared to shear connectors from chosen studies.