Experimental assessment of angle shear connectors under monotonic and fully reversed cyclic loading in high strength concrete

An experimental study was performed to investigate the behaviour of angle shear connectors embedded in high strength concrete (HSC) slab. Eight push-out specimens were tested covering various geometries of angle shear connector. On top of the experimental study, the accuracy of the available equations to estimate the load capacities of angle connectors is also evaluated for the angles embedded in HSC. The results show inadequate ductility behaviour for the angle shear connectors embedded in HSC. Nonetheless, the angle connectors exhibited good behaviour in the case of strength degradation under cyclic loading. All specimens experienced the angle fracture type of failure and showed a very low strength degradation (0.1%–1.4%) when they were subjected to low cyclic fatigue loading. This study also concludes that the current available equations estimated the shear capacity of angle connectors embedded in HSC either are conservative or overestimate the ultimate capacity.