Local and post-local buckling of steel plates in composite construction

This paper presents an experimental and theoretical investigation of the local and post-local buckling of steel plates in composite steel-concrete construction. An experimental programme using profiled steel sheets in contact with concrete has been developed to study the local buckling behaviour of steel restrained by concrete. A semi-analytical finite strip method for both the elastic and inelastic regions has been calibrated against these experiments with success. The post-local buckling behaviour of these plates is then described and design equations for the effective widths of locally buckled plates are established. The methods are shown to be applicable to all areas of steel-concrete composite construction where local instability may occur. These include composite slabs, beams, walls and columns.